Merriam-Webster Declares 'Feminism' Its 'Word of the Year'

ola olugbemi | December 12, 2017
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Merriam-Webster just revealed that the word “feminism” was the most searched word of the year, and people had opinions.

ABC News reported that the word had been in the top 10 for Merriam-Webster for the last few years, along with others “isms” such as socialism, fascism, racism, communism, and terrorism.

The original definition of the word was much different than how it is used today. Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, stated that "feminism" first showed up in his company’s dictionary in 1841 through its founder, Noah Webster. Sokolowski stated:

It was a very new word at that time. His definition is not the definition that you and I would understand today. His definition was, 'The qualities of females,' so basically feminism to Noah Webster meant femaleness. We do see evidence that the word was used in the 19th century in a medical sense, for the physical characteristics of a developing teenager, before it was used as a political term, if you will.

Sokolowski also believes that this year’s events such as the Women’s March and the #MeToo campaign encouraged people to search for the term.

“What does it mean to be a feminist in 2017?" he said. "Those kinds of questions are the kinds of things, I think, that send people to the dictionary."

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