It’s not only celebrities and music artists who get awarded the chance of being best actress or best solo artist within their category. Merriam-Webster has announced 2014’s word of the year: culture.
According to the Associated Press, the decision was made based on the number of lookups people performed for particular words, especially when they had an increase in interest based on what was happening in the world during this time.
The second place lookup was made for the word nostalgia, especially considering there were many anniversaries of specific events, such as the Civil Rights Act being passed and when the Beatles came to the United States.
The editor for Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski, said, “We’re simply using the word culture more frequently. It may be a fad. It may not. It may simply be evolution.” Reportedly, the word culture had a 15 percent increase of how often it was looked up online on their website, whether to see what it meant or as a way to find inspiration.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the Oxford Dictionaries chose their own word a month earlier and they went with the word vape, which is a way of smoking by using an e-cigarette. Merriam-Webster often goes for top ten words and some of the others included insidious, legacy, feminism, and morbidity.