MANILA – Merriam-Webster has announced its Top 10 words this year -- and “selfie” is not included in the list.
The American dictionary publisher took a more academic approach and declared “science” as its 2013 Word of the Year.
The results are said to be based on around 100 million lookups a month.
“It is a word that is connected to broad cultural dichotomies: observation and intuition, evidence and tradition,” said editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski in a statement released on Merriam-Webster’s website, referring to the word "science."
“A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy. We saw heated debates about ‘phony’ science, or whether science held all the answers. It’s a topic that has great significance for us. And it fascinates us—enough so that it saw a 176% increase in lookups this year over last, and stayed a top lookup throughout the year,” Sokolowski added.
Landing in second place after “science” is “cognitive,” followed by “rapport,” “communication,” “niche,” “ethic,” “paradox,” “visceral,” “integrity” and “metaphor.”
Merriam-Webster associate editor Kory Stamper noted how a lot of people searched for “niche” to know how the word is pronounced.
“The spike in lookups may well be entirely related to the pronunciation of the word. Is it ‘NITCH’ or ‘NEESH’ or ‘NISH’?” Stamper said. “It’s a happy reminder that people do use the dictionary to check spellings and pronunciations of words.”
Last month, the Oxford Dictionaries selected “selfie,” a self-portrait usually on a smartphone or webcam, as its word of the year.
This after the term gained momentum as a social media buzzword, the dictionary said in a statement.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
