October 2009

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."