May Top Twenty

The economic plight of Europeans was in the news in May, and the words austere and austerity were often used to identify measures (both official and unofficial) that must be taken in order to bring stability to the ailing Euro Zone. Otherwise, we see many familiar terms in this month's Top Twenty list, but interesting words made cameo appearances throughout the month of May.

Word History of the Month: moratorium

One of the biggest news stories in years – BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – has produced very few words on the Top Twenty. Plume soared high for a day or so. Then, as calls to suspend deep-sea oil drilling began to be heard, moratorium rose (with a bullet) to #24 for the month.

Notable and Quotable: William Styron

Many of the quotations in the dictionary come from long-gone authors – think Shakespeare and Wordsworth – but modern authors have also earned their place in the frequently updated Collegiate.

William Styron (born June 11, 1925; died November 1, 2006), was one such author. Quotations from the Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist, novelist, and playwright are found at six entries in the Collegiate. Two of those quotations (aggravate and comprise) illustrate sometimes controversial usages.

From the Mail Server

This month, editors helped correspondents capture the castle and chase down idiomatic usage of a word as both a transitive and intransitive verb.

Happy Birthday 1904

James Joyce fans around the world celebrate June 16 as Bloomsday. The name comes from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's novel Ulysses. That great modern novel details a single day -- June 16, 1904 -- in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom. (That date, by the way, marks James Joyce's first date with Nora Barnacle, whom he would later marry.)

Of the more than 250 words whose first appearance in print dates back to 1904, we pulled out three dozen which may (arguably) evoke James Joyce.

For a complete list of all the words that first appeared in print in a particular year, first select the Collegiate as your reference. Click on Date in the pull-down menu, type in the year, and click on Search.

Words in the News

Weeks of media coverage of Europe's economic crisis made austere and austerity, taken together, the most looked-up terms for May. What's the story of these terms?

Since the late Middle Ages, austerity has been the term of choice for enforced or extreme economy, especially when such economy is on a national scale. Austerity and austere derive from a Greek term meaning "making the tongue dry and rough," which became less literal and more figurative in English, coming to mean "harsh or severe." Austerity certainly does leave one in parched, rather than luxurious, conditions.

In Case You Were Wondering

The word siphon became a very frequently looked up word in the Online Dictionary last month when the Australian scientist Dr. Stephen Hughes announced that he had discovered a mistake in the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of siphon. That definition, dating to 1911, credits atmospheric pressure as the force that moves liquid through a siphon tube, whereas Dr. Hughes' view is that gravity causes the flow. We looked at both definitions to see what was what.

Language Links

After nine rounds in the finals, Anamika Veeramani won the 83rd Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on June 4, 2010. The word that she successfully spelled in the ninth round to confirm her victory was stromuhr – a medical word for "a rheometer designed to measure the amount and speed of blood flow through an artery." (Rheometer takes its name from rheo meaning current or flow + the meter that measures).

Interested in words from the semifinal and final rounds of this year's Bee?

Interested in words that stumped or in some winning words from Bees gone by?

Finally, here's a page of study tips for would-be spellers.