April TOP TWENTY

Although misogyny, polygamy, and elite were the news-derived terms most looked-up in April, none made the Top Twenty. A new word on the list is mature, which led us to notice how many of the words on the current list are overwhelmingly used to describe people. Here's the full list for April.

Happy Birthday: 1954

In May, 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. The barrier was as much psychological as it was physical: running that fast was considered by some to be impossible. Bannister's record was broken only a few weeks later, and nowadays breaking a 4-minute-mile is a realistic goal for runners, not simply a dream.

One hundred eighty-four words broke into print in 1954; more than a few of them are so well-established as to be considered run-of-the-mill these days. Interested in tracking down words that first appeared in print in a particular year? Select the Collegiate as your reference, click on Advanced Search, type the year into the Date field and click on Search.

Notable and Quotable: Henry Kissinger

Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli was born May 3, 1469; German-born diplomat and academic Henry Kissinger, who has been described as the 20th century's Machiavelli, was born May 27, 1923. Machiavelli wrote The Prince and advised rulers that "it is better to be feared than loved." Kissinger, who exercised realpolitik from the Nixon White House, told The New York Times, "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." Machiavelli isn't quoted in the Unabridged (he wrote in Italian), but Kissinger's words are used to illustrate five different nouns.

Interested in finding examples of a favorite author in the dictionary? It's easy. Choose the Unabridged as your reference and click on Advanced Search. Type the last name in the Author field and click Search.

Just Foolin' Around

The first comic strip, The Yellow Kid, hit the funny pages on May 5, 1895. Curious about linguistic contributions made by cartoonists? It's funny how many there are, ranging from Alphonse and Gaston to shazam to mickey-mouse (noun, interjection, verb!).

Want to see even more? Select either the Unabridged or the Collegiate and choose Etymology from the pull-down menu of search types. Type cartoon in the box, and click on Search. For a larger list, try comic as your Etymology search term. You will get slightly different lists from each reference.

From the Mail Server

This month's first question targeted the etymological dates of words, the second advised dictionary makers to double-check their work, and the third query elicited the assurance that the word tricentennial does indeed have a place in the dictionary.

In Case You Were Wondering

News reports about a polygamous religious sect in Texas sent folks looking up polygamy and polygamist in April. Combined, those terms ranked at position 35 for the month in lookups at our Online Dictionary.

Poly has many meanings — "many"; "several"; "much"; "multi"; "containing an indefinite number more than one of" — and appears as a part of more than 1,300 words in English. Here are a few poly words of interest. To collect more, choose the Unabridged as a reference and type poly* into the Main Entry field.

Words in the News

Although it didn't quite make the Top Twenty list for the month, the word elite got plenty of attention this month. The lookups followed charges of "elitism" laid at Senator Obama's doorstep after the "bitter" incident. (Bitter, by the way, didn't receive an extraordinary number of lookups). Read up on elite.

To Coin a Phrase: silent spring

Rachel Carson was born May 27, 1907. In her 56 years, the biologist and writer wrote beautiful prose that led readers to reflect on her notion that "man is a part of nature and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself." In 1962, two years before her death, Carson published Silent Spring, credited with helping launch the environmental movement. The phrase silent spring quickly caught on with the public. Read more.

Language Links

Writer, illustrator, and nonsense versifier extraordinaire Edward Lear was born May 12, 1812. Lear is remembered for popularizing the limerick, the usually humorous five-line verse. Need some help writing a limerick? Try this site for a thorough explanation on just how it's done. Want to learn by example? Check out Lear's verses. And all are invited to contribute to an ambitious online dictionary in limerick form.