Merriam-Webster Reveals This Year’s Word Of The Year
This year has been the year of feminism, at least according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary website. They announced that 'feminism' is the word of the year for 2017.
Merriam-Webster officials said they saw a 70% increase in traffic online for the 'feminism', mostly after big events that dealt with women's issues happened. The year started out with the Women's March on Washington after Donald Trump was inaugurated. Another spike in searches for 'feminism' happened after the #MeToo movement happened soon after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke and a number of rich and famous men were called out for allegedly sexually harassing and assaulting women.
The funny thing is feminism was defined in its first appearance in Merriam-Webster as "the quality of females". It is now defined as"organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests", and not just a political stance. Kellyanne Conway, White House Counselor to the President, raised eyebrows when she said earlier this year that she is not a feminist in the classic sense, calling classic feminism "very anti-male and it certainly seems to be very pro-abortion." She said she is a conservative feminist, one who makes her own choices and is not anti-male or pro-abortion.
Looks like Merriam-Webster needs to add another definition to next year's dictionary.