What keeps dictionaries in business.
Springfield-based Merriam-Webster Inc., with its long-time expertise in words via dictionary publishing, is predicting this year’s top 10 “Big Words on Campus,” based on historic lookup data at Merriam-Webster.com.
Among the words - perhaps giving insight into students' concerns, study habits or just plain understanding -- is "plagiarize."
But the biggest spike in lookups every September, according to a company release, is the word "culture."
“Culture is a term used in course names, textbook titles, and syllabus headings. It is perhaps the word that best encapsulates what is meant today by higher education: a single word that can encompass what we study and why we study it,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, is quoted in the release.
“A generation ago many courses of study were oriented toward analysis of 'the individual and society,' but today everything from classical Greek to sports nutrition to manga seems to reflect ‘culture.’”
'Diversity" is another word that rises to the top of dictionary lookups, according to the company.
"Student programs, essays, and college mission statements are devoted to diversity, and the term is talked about during freshman orientation," the release notes.
Lookups for "plagiarize" spike every September, according to the release.
Meaning “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own,” according to Merriam Webster, with the release adding "the forbidden act is warned against during orientation, in syllabi, and by professors on the first day of class."
The release also reports that students often need help with such literature-related words as "irony," "metaphor" and "allegory." And, for those suffering through critical writing classes, words like "pedagogy," and "rhetoric" require further explanation.
For the complete list of Merriam-Webster’s "Big Words on Campus", including definitions, visit http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-big-words-on-campus/culture.html.