Merriam- Webster has revealed “feminism as its word of the year for 2017. The Massachusetts-based dictionary said “feminism” was looked up on its website 70 percent more this year than last. Peter Sokolowski, Merriam Webster’s editor-at-large, said interest in feminism sparked several times—including during the Women’s March, and the premiere of the movie “Wonder Woman.”
“Most recently, as we all know, many accusations of sexual harassment and assault to any number of men have made feminism part of the national conversation in the last few months as well,” Sokolowski said.
Merriam-Webster’s decision follows Dictionary.com’s word of the year designation of “complicit,” which also made the Merriam-Webster short list. Other runners-up included recuse, federalism and hurricane.
This report comes from the New England News Collaborative: Eight public media companies, including Rhode Island Public Radio, coming together to tell the story of a changing region, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
