September Top Twenty

An outburst during a presidential address in September caused much comment – and brought the word admonish to national prominence as the official term used in Congress for expressing displeasure at the behavior of a member. The term became the single most looked-up word for the month.

Words in the News

Rep. Joe Wilson's shout of "you lie!" during President Obama's address to Congress sparked plenty of discussion. The House formally rebuked the congressman for his actions, and the word admonish rose to #1 for the month. What's the distinction between admonish and rebuke (which ended up in the top 100 for the month)?

Happy Birthday 1962

October 1962 saw the US and the USSR on the brink of nuclear war. Forty-seven years after the Cuban missile crisis ended, we take a look back at a few of the 211 terms that first appeared in print during that year of tension. A surprising number of them seem as if they could be talking about that month (and year) of tension.

Interested in the full list of words from a particular year? Select the Collegiate as your reference, select Date from the pull-down Search Type list, type the year in question into the box, and click on Search.

Notable & Quotable: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born Oct 21, 1772. Not only did the great poet offer students what he termed a "homely definition" of prose and poetry ("prose, words in their best order" and "poetry, the best words in the best order"), he also gave them a reason to look up the word homely (Coleridge used that adjective to mean simple; unaffected).

Let's look at some other Coleridgean offerings from the Unabridged. The poet’s words illustrate eight dozen words in the Unabridged, a few of which are collected here.

From the Mail Server

Editors, this month, answered a question that celebrates the particular contribution made by American lexicographer Noah Webster, born 251 years ago this month; they addressed a question born of the news stories about health care reform; and – oh yes – they tackled the issue of zero versus o.

In Case You Were Wondering

Both asinine and jackass landed in the Top 100 for September. In both cases, we can thank politicians for sending folks to the dictionary.

Asinine hit the big time after South Carolina's former Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian described Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst of "you lie!" as "asinine." Jackass had its moment in the spotlight after President Barack Obama was heard calling musician Kanye West a "jackass" for his rude behavior at the MTV awards.

Just Foolin' Around

It isn't often that Merriam-Webster is itself part of a news story, but that's what happened last month when President Obama appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. The two men disagreed on whether one of the president's proposals regarding health insurance policy should properly be classified as a tax. Stephanopoulos quoted Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary to support his case, and the word tax rose high in the lookup rankings for a day or so. The president, in turn, even referred to us by name, calling us "Merriam."

Language Links

October 16 is Dictionary Day, in honor of lexicographer Noah Webster, who was born October 16, 1758. Webster's 19th century dictionaries helped establish the notion of American English. Two centuries later, dictionaries are a part of American life. Celebrate Dictionary Day with a look at two very unusual and engaging modern sorts of dictionaries.