Sunday, December 17, 2017

Webster's words of the year

They are:
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2017 is feminism. The word was a top lookup throughout the year, ...

Today’s definitions of feminism read: “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.”
Not everyone realizes that these two definitions are opposites in many contexts.

If you listen to women who call themselves feminists, they hardly ever talk about equality issues. For example, their biggest current complaint is about sexual harassment, but 90% of their complaints are things that no man would ever complain about.
Complicit means “helping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way.” It comes from the Latin word meaning “to fold together.”

The word has been used in connection with the Trump administration throughout the year: first, regarding whether members of Trump's administration were complicit in the firing of James Comey, and later whether they were complicit in Russian disinformation campaigns meant to disrupt the 2016 election.
This word is misused also, as it is generally agreed that the firing of Comey was legal and proper.

Lookups of recuse spiked several times this year, and all the spikes were in reference to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. ...

Recuse means “to disqualify (oneself) as judge in a particular case” and “to remove (oneself) from participation to avoid a conflict of interest.” Recuse came to English from French and ultimately traces back to the Latin word recusare (meaning “to object to” or “to refuse”).
Sessions removed himself from active participation in Mueller's investigation, but he still has a constitutional obligation to oversee Mueller and fire him if necessary.
Empathy means “the ability to share another person’s feelings” and ultimately derives from the Greek word meaning “emotional.”
Wikipedia lists other definitions.

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