Who do they think they are? Batman?
Merriam-Webster, a publishing company famous for its dictionaries, has chosen its word of the year. And that word is: justice.
Okay.
Don’t get me wrong, we all love justice, but it seems to me that picking it for your word of the year really makes it seem like you just wish you were a superhero instead of a dictionary publisher.
But as it turns out, the selection actually makes a great deal of sense. Analytics from the Merriam-Webster website have shown that searches for the word “justice” were up by 74% compared with 2017.
This increase comes at a time when Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for obstruction of justice — among other things. Mueller is also beholden to the US Department of Justice.
Merriam-Webster announced the designation just days after Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison as part of that investigation.
The word justice comes from the Latin iüstitia, which meant righteousness, or equity.
Collins Dictionary chose their word of the year last month, going with “single-use” — referring to the kind of plastic that many companies have vowed to stop using in 2018.
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