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'Polarization' is Merriam-Webster's 2024 word of the year
by Associated Press
The results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country
and sent shockwaves across the world -- or were cause for celebration,
depending on who you ask. Is it any surprise then that the
Merriam-Webster word of the year is "polarization"?
"Polarization means division, but it's a very specific kind of
division," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, in
an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday's
announcement. "Polarization means that we are tending toward the
extremes rather than toward the center."
The election was so divisive, many American voters went to the polls
with a feeling that the opposing candidate was an existential threat to
the nation. According to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000
voters, about 8 in 10 Kamala Harris voters were very or somewhat
concerned that Donald Trump's views -- but not Harris' -- were too
extreme, while about 7 in 10 Trump voters felt the same way about
Harris -- but not Trump.
The Merriam-Webster entry for "polarization" reflects scientific and
metaphorical definitions. It's most commonly used to mean "causing
strong disagreement between opposing factions or groupings."
Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site,
chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search
and usage.
Last year's pick was "authentic." This year's comes as large swaths of
the U.S. struggle to reach consensus on what is real.
"It's always been important to me that the dictionary serve as a kind
of neutral and objective arbiter of meaning for everybody," Sokolowski
said. "It's a kind of backstop for meaning in an era of fake news,
alternative facts, whatever you want to say about the value of a word's
meaning in the culture."
It's notable that "polarization" originated in the early 1800s -- and
not during the Renaissance, as did most words with Latin roots about
science, Sokolowski said. He called it a "pretty young word," in the
scheme of the English language. "Polarized is a term that brings
intensity to another word," he continued, most frequently used in the
U.S. to describe race relations, politics and ideology.
"The basic job of the dictionary is to tell the truth about words," the
Merriam-Webster editor continued. "We've had dictionaries of English
for 420 years and it's only been in the last 20 years or so that we've
actually known which words people look up."
"Polarization" extends beyond political connotations. It's used to
highlight fresh cracks and deep rifts alike in pop culture, tech trends
and other industries.
All the scrutiny over Taylor Swift's private jet usage? Polarizing.
Beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake? Polarizing. The
International Olympic Committee's decision to strip American gymnast
Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal after the Paris Games? You guessed
it: polarizing.
Even lighthearted memes -- like those making fun of Australian
breakdancer Rachael "Raygun" Gunn's performance -- or the proliferation
of look-alike contests, or who counts as a nepo baby proved polarizing.
Paradoxically though, people tend to see eye to eye on the word itself.
Sokolowski cited its frequent use among people across the political
spectrum, including commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
"It's used by both sides," he said, "and in a little bit ironic twist
to the word, it's something that actually everyone agrees on."
Rounding out Merriam-Webster's top 10 words of 2024:
#### Demure
TikToker Jools Lebron's 38-second video describing her workday makeup
routine as "very demure, very mindful" lit up the summer with memes.
The video has been viewed more than 50 million times, yielding "huge
spikes" in lookups, Sokolowski said, and prompting many to learn it
means reserved or modest.
#### Fortnight
Taylor Swift's song "Fortnight," featuring rapper Post Malone,
undoubtedly spurred many searches for this word, which means two weeks.
"Music can still send people to the dictionary," Sokolowski said.
#### Totality
The solar eclipse in April inspired awe and much travel. There are tens
of millions of people who live along a narrow stretch from Mexico's
Pacific coast to eastern Canada, otherwise known as the path of
totality, where locals and travelers gazed skyward to see the moon
fully blot out the sun. Generally, the word refers to a sum or
aggregate amount -- or wholeness.
#### Resonate
"Texts developed by AI have a disproportionate percentage of use of the
word 'resonate,'" Sokolowski said. This may be because the word, which
means to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way,
can add gravitas to writing. But, paradoxically, artificial
intelligence "also betrays itself to be a robot because it's using that
word too much."
#### Allision
The word was looked up 60 times more often than usual when, in March, a
ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. "When you
have one moving object into a fixed object, that's an allision, not a
collision. You're showing that one of the two objects struck was not,
in fact, in motion," Sokolowski said.
#### Weird
This summer on the TV news show "Morning Joe," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz
called Republican leaders "weird." It may have been what launched his
national career, landing him as the Democratic vice presidential
nominee. Though it's a word that people typically misspell -- is it
"ei" or "ie"? -- and search for that reason, its rise in use was
notable, Sokolowski said.
#### Cognitive
Whether the word was used to raise questions about President Joe
Biden's debate performance or Trump's own age, it cropped up often. It
refers to conscious intellectual activity -- such as thinking,
reasoning, or remembering.
#### Pander
Pander was used widely in political commentary, Sokolowski said.
"Conservative news outlets accused Kamala Harris of pandering to
different groups, especially young voters, Black voters, gun rights
supporters." Whereas Walz said Trump's visit to a McDonald's kitchen
pandered to hourly wage workers. It means to say, do, or provide what
someone -- such as an audience -- wants or demands even though it is
not "good, proper, reasonable, etc."
#### Democracy
In 2003, Merriam-Webster decided to make "democracy" its first word of
the year. Since then, the word -- which, of course, means a form of
government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions,
policies and laws -- is consistently one of the dictionary's most
looked up. "There's a poignancy to that, that people are checking up on
it," Sokolowski said. "Maybe the most hopeful thing that the curiosity
of the public shows, is that they're paying attention."
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