{"id":5159,"date":"2004-11-30T22:50:07","date_gmt":"2004-12-01T02:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/11\/30\/things-looking-up-defining-20"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:11","slug":"things-looking-up-defining-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/11\/30\/things-looking-up-defining-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"things looking up — defining 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Merriam-Webster’s <\/FONT>Words of the Year 2004<\/FONT><\/A> have been announced.    \"thesaurus\"<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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It’s a list of the ten words that have been looked up the most at the <\/FONT>M-W<\/FONT><\/A><\/DIV>
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online dictionary<\/FONT><\/A> and thesaurus in 2004. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Most webloggers will take special notice, I’m sure, that the word “blog” was came in at<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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#1.   In fact, as <\/FONT>TalkLeft<\/FONT><\/A> notes, “blog”  will be a new entry in the 2005 version of the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary<\/EM>, Eleventh Edition.   Here’s the M-W definition:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Blog<\/FONT><\/A><\/SPAN> noun<\/EM> [short for Weblog<\/EM>] (1999) :<\/STRONG> a Web site that contains an online <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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by the writer<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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I’m sure there will be plenty of quibbling over the definition, but I plan to stay out of<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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that loop (find other defintions of “blog” at <\/FONT>OneLook<\/FONT><\/A> Dictionary and <\/FONT>Ask Jeeves<\/FONT><\/A>).<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Of course, I need to preserve my customary <\/FONT>objection<\/FONT><\/A> to the adoption of that ugly<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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 little word.  Click <\/FONT>here<\/FONT><\/A> for a brief history of the word “blog” (and my plea that we<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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do better from now on as we create our online and technological Language Legacy).<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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I have a different observation:  M-W<\/EM>‘s Top Ten List gives a remarkably good sketch<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of the events of 2004 — an outline of words on the minds of many Americans. <\/FONT>In addition <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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to “blog,” here’s the list:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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 2. <\/FONT>incumbent<\/FONT><\/A>
 3. <\/FONT>electoral<\/FONT><\/A>
 4. <\/FONT>insurgent<\/FONT><\/A>
 5. <\/FONT>hurricane<\/FONT><\/A>
 6. <\/FONT>cicada<\/FONT><\/A>
 7. <\/FONT>peloton<\/FONT><\/A> :<\/STRONG> noun<\/EM> (1951) :<\/STRONG> the main body of riders in a bicycle race
 8. <\/FONT>partisan<\/FONT><\/A>
 9. <\/FONT>sovereignty<\/FONT><\/A>
10. <\/FONT>defenestration<\/FONT><\/A><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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   \"blackboard  <\/FONT>There are still 31 days left in 2004.  I wonder what events in America or <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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around the world <\/FONT>could change this list, as we go online to better understand the words <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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that are important <\/FONT>to be well-informed citizens, students, parents, and human beings.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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looking up, wrinkles
looking down, wrinkles…
a cold night<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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drawing words
in an old tray’s ashes…
winter cold<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/DIV><\/FONT>
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Kobayashi ISSA<\/FONT><\/A>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/FONT>                                                       <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/DIV><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year 2004 have been announced.    It’s a list of the ten words that have been looked up the most at the M-W online dictionary and thesaurus in 2004.   Most webloggers will take special notice, I’m sure, that the word “blog” was came in at #1.   In fact, as TalkLeft notes, “blog”  will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1ld","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13488,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions\/13488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}