Merriam-Webster: Bailout is the word for 2008

Bailout, maverick, and socialism were among the most frequently looked up words this year on its dictionary website, Merriam-Webster Inc. of Springfield said today.

"Traffic to Merriam-Webster OnLine now exceeds 125 million individual page views per month," the company said in a press release.

The word that received the most look-ups over the shortest period of time was bailout, which the dictionary defines as "a rescue from financial distress," the company said.

"Typically our online dictionary lookups are for slightly difficult but still generic nonspecialized vocabulary," John M. Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., said in a statement. "But a word in the headlines can grab people's attention to become a most frequently looked-up word. This year's presidential campaign produced voluminous hits for words like 'vet,' 'bipartisan,' 'misogyny,' and the word used to describe both candidates on the Republican ticket, 'maverick.'"

Another frequently looked-up word was "socialism."

"This word seems to have had two back-to-back boosts," Morse said. "The first was the question of whether federal bailouts of large banks were tantamount to socialism, and the second was 'Joe the Plumber' and other critics saying that US presidential candidate Barack Obama's economic plan was a form of socialism."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)