The Word of the Year

You have to love the benefits of digital electronics. What is the “Word of the Year?” It’s the word whose meaning was most often looked up on the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary. Let’s see what words we want to know about shall we?

#10 Inept – Undoubtedly the result of people reading stories related to the Federal Government’s handling of the aftermath of Katrina. Or, perhaps, the result of people reading stories about the Bush administration's handling of the intelligence related to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? With the Bush administration in office there would be so many stories needing to use this word that I'm not surprised it made the list.

#9 Levee – Also probably related to people reading about Katrina. I guess folks wanted to know what those thingies were that broke and whether or not there were any in their vicinity that they should be worrying about.

#8 Conclave – Probably the result of hearing about this mysterious Conclave of Cardinals during the election of Benedict the XVI.

#7 Pandemic – See people are listening to the warnings about the Bird Flu. They just don’t know the difference between pandemic, epidemic and endemic.

#6 Tsunami – Yuppers, they knew it was a disaster, they just didn’t know what kind of disaster.

#5 Insipid – Must be the result of reading stories about Dubyah’s personality.

#4 Filibuster – AHA! So they are paying attention to the confirmation hearings and the Red Staters want to know what those evil Democrats are up to. Come on boys, don’t y’all pay attention to family history? It’s what your daddies did to try and keep them pinko liberals from passing laws giving them uppity darkies voting rights.

#3 Contempt – Must be the result of people reading about what the Republican party feels toward the average American.

#2 Refugee – Considering that both Tsunami and Levee are in the top ten I’m amazed that this isn’t #1. Then again, I guess there are enough folks that have more than a 3rd grade vocabulary to keep it at #2.

#1 Integrity – LOL!!! Clearly the result of people wanting to know about this thing that the Bush administration, politicians in general, priests and the supporters of Intelligent Design all lack!

Does it scare you that people in rather large numbers had to actually look up these words?