Sorry, “deplorable.” Not so fast, “bigly” — 2016 wasn’t quite your year.
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year is “surreal,” the dictionary revealed Monday morning. To make the list, a word must show a high volume of lookups, particularly a significant year-over-year increase in searches at Merriam-Webster.com. The results shed light on topics and ideas that sparked the nation’s interest in 2016.
Lookups of “surreal” spiked after a number of major events worldwide, beginning with the Brussels terror attacks in March. It was also used in descriptions for the Turkey coup attempt and another terrorist attack in Nice. And of course, the biggest jump followed November’s U.S. elections.
“Spikes of interest in a word are usually triggered by a single event, so what’s truly remarkable this year about ‘surreal’ is that so many different stories led people to look it up,” said Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster. “Historically, ‘surreal’ has been one of the words most searched after tragedy, most notably in the days following 9/11, but it was associated with a wide variety of stories this year.”
“Events often have specific words tied to them, and it’s always fascinating to see which of those words people latch onto,” added Kory Stamper, associate editor at Merriam-Webster. “You can get a sense as to how people are responding to an event by the words that are looked up again and again.”
“Bigly,” “deplorable,” “revenant,” “icon” and Latin phrase “omnia paratus” all ranked high on the dictionary’s list, but couldn’t nab the top spot.
“Bigly” is actually a misinterpretation of a favorite debate phrase from Donald Trump: “big league.” “Deplorable” comes courtesy of a Hillary Clinton burn on Trump’s supporters.
“Revenant” gained traction on the heels of Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie of the same name. “Icon” jumped after Prince’s death.
“Omnia Paratus,” which translates to “ready for all things,” stems from the return of “Gilmore Girls.”