US dictionary Merriam-Webster to change its definition of racism

NEW YORK - The American reference dictionary Merriam-Webster will change its definition of the word racism at the suggestion of a young black woman, who wanted it to better reflect the oppression of people of color.

Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate of Drake University in Iowa, contacted Merriam-Webster, which has published its dictionaries since 1847, to propose updating the term.

"I basically told them that they need to include that there's a systematic oppression upon a group of people," she told the local CBS affiliate KMOV. "It's not just, 'Oh, I don't like someone.'"

Merriam-Webster's editorial manager Peter Sokolowski confirmed to AFP that the definition would be modified after Mitchum's request.

The dictionary currently offers three definitions of racism, and Sokolowski said that the second definition touches on Mitchum's point -- but that "we will make that even more clear in our next release".

In the current version of the second definition, racism is "a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles," and "a political or social system founded on racism."

"This is the kind of continuous revision that is part of the work of keeping the dictionary up to date, based on rigorous criteria and research we employ in order to describe the language as it is actually used," Sokolowski said.

One of the dictionary's editors told Mitchum that the definitions of other words "related to racism or have racial connotations" would also be updated, without specifying which ones.

"We apologize for the harm and offense we have caused in failing to address this issue sooner," the editor wrote, according to a message published by Drake University and retweeted by Mitchum.

The Merriam-Webster site, where the definitions are available for free, had nearly 50 million unique visitors in May, according to the SimilarWeb site.

Merriam-Webster's Twitter account has also become a viral hit in recent years, with Buzzfeed calling it "the sassiest dictionary on Twitter".

Agence France-Presse

Ex-FBI chief sets Twitter abuzz but @realDonaldTrump is silent

NEW YORK - Former FBI Director James Comey's long-anticipated congressional testimony set off a social media storm on Thursday with millions of people jumping into the fray but there was one notable absence - the tweeter in chief himself.

President Donald Trump's ordinarily red-hot Twitter handle, @realDonaldTrump, was dormant during the three-hour hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, although another Trump helped carry the mantle. Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, live tweeted throughout Comey's testimony, taking the ex-FBI director to task for his version of what the president told him.

Twitter had a field day with other moments of Comey's testimony, including his revelation that he broke a date with his wife in order to have dinner with Trump and his use of the exclamation "Lordy." Comey's disclosure that the person who leaked his memos of meeting with Trump was a Columbia Law School professor led to a stampede on the school's website, causing it to crash.

Here are some highlights of what excited Twitter during the testimony.

SON STANDS IN FOR TRUMP

Trump Jr. took issue with Comey's comments about whether the president was ordering him to drop the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"Knowing my father for 39 years when he 'orders or tells' you to do something there is no ambiguity, you will know exactly what he means," he tweeted.


"Hoping and telling are two very different things, you would think that a guy like Comey would know that," he concluded, adding the hashtag "#givemeabreak".

With his father's Twitter handle silent, @DonaldJTrumpJr became the 10th most mentioned Twitter handle in the Comey conversation, according to social media analysis firm Brandwatch.

'LORDY'

One remark in particular from Comey got the Twittersphere buzzing.

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," he told the committee regarding whether Trump had recorded their conversation.

"Lordy" quickly became the focus of numerous memes, animated graphics and calls for T-shirts.

Even the Merriam-Webster dictionary got into the act, tweeting out the definition of "Lordy" as a word used to "express surprise or strength of feeling."


Twitter said Comey's "Lordy" remark was among the top three most tweeted moments during the testimony.

STOOD UP

Social media also poked fun when Comey revealed a presidential intrusion into his domestic life.

"I had to call my wife and break a date with her," Comey said. "I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night."

"Moral of the #Comey testimony: Don't cancel a date with your wife," said CBS-Chicago reporter Jeremy Ross on Twitter.

COLUMBIA CRASH

Columbia Law School's website became overburdened after Comey said he had asked a good friend who is a professor there to leak memos from his meeting with Trump to the media. Daniel Richman later confirmed to Reuters he was the one to whom Comey referred in his testimony.

Shortly after the mention by Comey, the school tweeted: "Columbia Law's site is down at the moment. We are working on a solution. Stay tuned."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

And Merriam-Webster's word of the year is…

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