"Integrity" is the most looked-up word of the last year, according to one on-line dictionary. There are words you look up because you don't know what they mean at all, and words -- like "integrity," I'm sure -- that you basically know but, for some reason, want a precise or authoritative definition of. I think it's rather touching that so many people were looking up "integrity." Were they searching for the right path in their own lives? Or were they just framing arguments against their opponents? I picture a web full of indignant political bloggers and guess that it's the latter.
Other words that made the list suggest that the news is what drives large numbers of dictionary users to the same word: filibuster, refugee, tsunami, levee, pandemic, conclave, inept. "Conclave" is pope-related. "Inept"? It's got to be Bush-related.
December 11, 2005
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13 comments:
Maybe they just want to see how to spell the words.
The relevant word fror the Bush Administration, then, would be "Criminal" as in War Criminal.
Well podpeople is coming into use as well (as different from past use). Maybe people are just reminiscing ..... going back in time. Idealizing the past. Like in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, where it seemed that in spite of any individual's frailty or humanness, they all had integrity (except of course for Mr. Potter).
Great book on integrity:
Integrity
And another terrific one, by the same author:
Civility
Great non-fiction for those who like ideas. Accessible, too, and not too long.
Back to work ...
[W]hat's the relevant word during the Clinton era?
dave and ericp:
You're both wrong!
The relevant word would be (of course):
IS!
; )
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Phooey -- reader_iam beat me to the joke.
Maybe the #1 entry was a result of what John Kerry's mother supposedly said to him on her death bed: "Integrity, Integrity, Integrity".
I use an online dictionary as a spell checker for situations, like this, where I don't have one built in. I will try Google for awhile to see if it is easier.
Inept is bush related? Integrity wont allow me to comment on that!
Integrity is oft looked up because few are willing to pay the price, once they know the cost.
I wonder how many of these words were looked up in order to paste the definition as the beginning of a blog comment- one of the world's most puerile and annoying debate tactics.
I love that Apple includes a little dictionary program with the OS now so I don't have to bother waiting for an online service, those times when I don't want to haul the micro OED off the shelf.
I deleted Tefta's comment because it named a specific business and asserted that it had done bad things that we have no way to check. I don't want that on this blog. No offense, Tefta -- I know you meant nothing wrong.
Secret law!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_12/007745.php
They talk about you:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_12/007745.php
YOU HAVE GOT TO COMMENT Þ
secret law-gilmore-I.D.-airplane
-lawsuit-peculiar-cnet
astute !
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