Feminism (n.), the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes or organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests, is the 2017 Word of the Year, according to Merriam Webster.
The word was the dictionary publisher’s top lookup through the year, with several spikes corresponding to various news reports and events, the publisher said.
“The general rise in lookups tells us that many people are interested in this word; specific spikes give us insight into some of the reasons why,” Merriam Webster said in a post on its website announcing the Word of the Year.
The rest of Merriam-Webster’s list of Top Ten Lookups in 2017 included the words:
- Complicit
- Recuse
- Empathy
- Dotard
- Syzygy
- Gyro
- Federalism
- Hurricane
- Gaffe
According to Merriam-Webster, feminism lookups spiked following news coverage of the Women’s March on Washington, DC in January, and follow-up discussions regarding whether the march was feminist, and what kind of feminism was represented by organizers and attendees.
The word spiked again when Kellyanne Conway said during an interview that she didn’t consider herself a feminist. In this case, the definition of feminism was itself the subject of the news story — an invitation for many people to look up the word.
Interest in the dictionary definition of feminism was also driven by entertainment this year: Merriam Webster said it saw increased lookups after the release of both Hulu’s series The Handmaid’s Tale and the film Wonder Woman.
More recently, Merriam-Webster said, lookups of feminism have been increasing in conjunction with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news. Many women have come forward to share their stories with journalists and many more women joined in on social media using the #MeToo hashtag to say that they too have been affected by such behavior. The string of breaking news stories regarding the resignations, firings, or dismissals of men who have been charged with sexual harassment or assault has kept this story in the news.
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.
