Following the news that Facebook declared International Women’s Day to be the most discussed moment of 2017, it’s clear that feminism is on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
Which is likely why Merriam-Webster has announced that feminism is word of the year for 2017 following up from last year’s post-Trump election pick: ‘surreal’.
The website for the company reports that the number of people looking up the meaning of feminism has skyrocketed by 70 per cent over the last year.
Making its mark: Merriam-Webster has revealed ‘feminism’ as its word of the year for 2017 after searches for it rose by 70 per cent over the year
Standing together: The searches also spiked during various events over the year, such as International Women’s Day and the Women’s March on DC
Lexicographer Peter Sokolowski, the company’s editor at large, told the Associated Press ahead of the annual word reveal that this is in addition to searches spiking during a number of events
The Women’s March on Washington in January was a standout event, along with its sister demonstrations around the globe.
It was all hot on the heels of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, which was punctuated by references linking her to white-clad suffragettes.
Of course, Hillary’s influence likely pales in comparison to the effect of President Donald Trump, who caused the word’s usage to rise after he was elected despite bragging about sexually pawing at women.
After Harvey Weinstein’s exposure as a sexual predator, the #MeToo movement made waves all over the world, with ‘silence breakers’ bringing down rich and famous men of media, politics and the entertainment worlds.
Feminism has been in Merriam-Webster’s annual Top 10 for the last few years, including sharing word-of-the-year honors with other ‘isms’ in 2015. Socialism, fascism, racism, communism, capitalism and terrorism rounded out the bunch. Surreal was the word of the year last year.
Another trigger: The start of Donald Trump’s presidency was certainly one of the factors in the word’s rise to the tip of everyone’s tongue
‘The word feminism was being use in a kind of general way,’ Sokolowski said by phone from the company’s headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts.
‘The feminism of this big protest, but it was also used in a kind of specific way: What does it mean to be a feminist in 2017? Those kinds of questions are the kinds of things, I think, that send people to the dictionary.’
Feminism’s roots are in the Latin for ‘woman’ and the word ‘female,’ which dates to 14th century English. Sokolowski had to look no further than his company’s founder, Noah Webster, for the first dictionary reference, in 1841, which isn’t all that old in the history of English.
‘It was a very new word at that time,’ Sokolowski said. ‘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.’
Webster added the word in revisions to his An American Dictionary of the English Language. They were his last. He died in 1843. He also added the word terrorism that year.
‘We had no idea he was the original dictionary source of feminism. We don’t have a lot of evidence of what he was looking at,’ Sokolowski said.
Today, Merriam-Webster defines feminism as the ‘theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes’ and ‘organized activities on behalf of women’s rights and interests.’
Longtime coming: The word was added to the dictionary by founder Noah Webster himself
Spark: Searches also spiked in February of 2017 after Kellyanne Conway said it was ‘difficult’ to call herself a feminist during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Committee
Another spike for the word feminism in 2017 occurred in February, after Kellyanne Conway spoke at the Conservative Political Action Committee.
‘It’s difficult for me to call myself a feminist in the classic sense because it seems to be very anti-male and it certainly seems to be very pro-abortion. I’m neither anti-male or pro-abortion,’ she said.
‘There’s an individual feminism, if you will, that you make your own choices. … I look at myself as a product of my choices, not a victim of my circumstances. And to me, that’s what conservative feminism is all about.’
She was applauded, and she sent many people to their dictionaries, Sokolowski said. The company would not release actual lookup numbers.
Other events that drew interest to the word feminism was the popular Hulu series, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ and the blockbuster movie, ‘Wonder Woman,’ directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins, Sokolowski said.
In addition to the word of the year announcement, the company also released nine runners-up, in no particular order.