October TOP TWENTY

After being bumped by one word-of-the-month or another for the past year, effect finally regained the top spot in October. The No. 2 spot went to apathetic, and while it's tempting to say that we don't know why, we'll instead offer the rest of the list.

Happy Birthday: 1965

When the lights went out during rush hour on November 9, 1965, the Great Northeast Blackout left 30 million people in the dark. It was the most dramatic lights-out in American history until the August 2003 blackout. Contrary to popular mythology, the overnight power outage did not result in a bump in the birth rate nine months later, but 1965 did see the birth of 220 words (and yes, 1966 saw 227).

It's easy to check on which words first saw the light of print in a particular year. Select the Collegiate as the reference, click on Advanced Search, type the year in the Date field, and click on Search.

Word History of the Month: didactic

The word didactic made its first appearance (at #16) on the Top Twenty list this month. As you might expect from a word whose Greek ancestors meant "apt at teaching" and "able to be taught," the story of didactic can teach word lovers a thing or two.

Report from the Open Dictionary

We're not the only folks on the lookout for new words. Our readers are too. When you notice a new word — on the radio, in a book or magazine, or online — and if you find that it's not found in any dictionary, then it's a good candidate for the Open Dictionary at Merriam-Webster Online, a feature that allows users to submit these discoveries. There are now over 12,000 entries on the Open Dictionary. In this month's newsletter, we share some of some of our favorite recent submissions.

Notable and Quotable: Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson, born November 13, 1850, wrote dozens of verses, short stories, and novels before his death at age 44. The author of Treasure Island was himself a treasure trove of terms for lexicographers seeking examples of word senses in context; many of the 171 places he is quoted in the Unabridged Dictionary highlight terms that are archaic, dialectal, chiefly Scottish . . . or some combination.

Interested in finding words from a favorite author in the dictionary? It's easy. Select either the Unabridged or the Collegiate as a reference source, and click on Advanced Search. Type the last name of the author in the Author field, and click Search.

From the Mail Server

We get letters! Editors ate up a question about where our language comes from and went on to questions from correspondents (who must be reading their cookbooks aloud!) as they prepare for both holiday baking and plain old baked potatoes.

In Case You Were Wondering

Another word exciting lots of curiosity (and look-ups) last month was irregardless. We suspect its popularity traces to a discussion on Tim Moynihan's blog (http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9796217-1.html.)

Moynihan cites Merriam-Webster in his effort to establish that irregardless is a legitimate word. Our response? Just this caution excerpted from The Concise Dictionary of English Usage.

Words in the News

Although it didn't make October's Top Twenty list, the word admonishment did spike briefly, possibly from news accounts concerning what might be politely termed a dust-up on Capitol Hill. Read all about it!

Just Foolin' Around

The traditional start of the holiday shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving, is known as Black Friday. Although that combination phrase does not appear as an entry of its own in the Unabridged Dictionary, black Friday does appear as an example used to illustrate the sense of the adjective black meaning "marked by the occurrence of disaster." It also has been suggested that the use of black in Black Friday may be related to "making a profit," as opposed to the use of red, meaning "showing a loss." This theory seems reasonable, but evidence supporting it is spotty.

If shopping on that busiest of days spells disaster to you, why not instead while away the day fooling around with color references on Merriam-Webster Unabridged? We started with black, but you can choose whatever you'd like.