I love dogs and people. I want living creatures to thrive. I love to cook, and share the food, but ya gotta get in line in front of the dog.
View all posts by ali redford
10 thoughts on ““2024 Word of the Year: Polarization””
Hi Ali. Do different dictionary groups do different words of the year? I ask because I have seen another post about word of the year and it was not … as normal a word as this one. I have also seen new words like Rizz added. Or many it is Riss. Meaning charisma. Hugs
Yes, they each do one, based on the searches on their sites. This one is Merriam-Webster’s. I think I saw one from Oxford American, but I don’t recall the word. These’ll be everywhere. I take M-W’s Word of the Day newsletter, and play Blossom on their site. I also like Oxford American as a dictionary.
Hi Ali. I love it. I love how the language changes and words that once meant one thing can also now mean a different thing entirely. Words are fluid, they are sounds we give meaning to, so if we decide to change the meanings then that is what happens. Words like culture evolve. New understandings and usage is what keep societies growing and healthy. Hugs
Yeah, sort of like how the rightwingnutjobs took an old, old term slaves and former slaves used to greet each other, reminding each other to stay aware of what’s happening around themselves, later used again by people of color after Michael Brown was murdered; the RWNJs then turned it into a synonym for liberal and decent.
Some words oughtn’t be as fluid as they sometimes become, to me. There are so many words, we don’t have to use some of them incorrectly until the dictionaries give up and redefine them to include the “new” meanings. And don’t get me started on usage! 🙂 But that’s a complaint as old as time. I remember a 5th grade substitute teacher, over 75 yo then, who used to take away a point when she heard the word “ain’t.” This was after a week of reminding us not to say ain’t. (Most of us didn’t unless we were reading it, which didn’t count.) One time a kid piped up, “Mom and Dad say ain’t isn’t a word!” The teacher said it was a word, because if a term makes sense in a sentence, that makes it a word. She did not like ain’t, it sounded bad, and she would deduct a point if she heard it from any of us in class.🤷 Just a fun story!
Hi Ali. Not enough attention is paid to vocabulary and reading in school now. I know time is at a premium in schools but when you look at the vocabulary of the president and the example it sets we need to teach kids to do better than tRump and crew of maga thugs. Hugs
We need to do better as adults in general, really. I remember a bit Michael Seidel wrote about his wife hearing a radio broadcast talking about a citrus shortage, and wondering how they would do without peaches. Of course peaches aren’t citrus, but for many people, they became citrus in that moment. Less-than-correct has been happening all over since at least GW, I guess out of “respect”?
I don’t know what’s happening in schools in FL. I do know up here that reading and basic math are the primary thing, all tying in to whatever else must be learned in a given day/week. Comprehension of the reading is not guaranteed, of course; that’s part of what we worked on at after school, though, which really helped the ones who came. But there is vast disparity between states as to what and how public school students learn what they learn, and that”s based on funding. Which is based on elected school boards. So there we are.
But adults should do better. I’d almost bet that broadcaster knew peaches weren’t citrus, but thought they were being funny. Some days, I can only smh. And try to quit being such a tightass about language!
Hi Ali. I worry at the different standards between states. Look at Texas and Oklahoma and what they demand to be taught compared to what is taught in New England or California. We are dividing into two countries of information and knowledge vs Christian theology and fake history. Red State fox entertainment watchers whose leaders force Christian nationalist theology on their students, and the blue states that teach reality of history and science.
My question is what happens when people of both sides interact. Ron and I helped save one kid decades ago when he went to religious schools and they taught him such incorrect outrageous things as facts, we spent afternoons showing him the truth. But now two generations at least have gone through those schools. They vote on what they learned. They have no idea of the true history and they teach their own kids the lies they learned. It terrifies me.
The thing that is worse Ali. I do not know how to fight back, how to reach the misinformed people, some who have generations of being taught misinformation. Those people will not be able to accept the truth as their grandparents were taught it, their parents were taught it, and now they are teaching it to their kids. Scary to me. Hugs
It does likely vary by state, but kids still go away to college. They haven’t stopped that yet! We just have to be the helpers however we can, as Mr. Rogers said. Nothing else for it.
Also I looked up or tried to look up blossom. But I did not find a link to how to play. I did find the game. Is it a word finding game? I play on my iPad called Word Wow. It is similar to the game Bookworm which I can not find now. You basically can run timed or not timed, and you find words in a maze set up to get to the bottom. The rules allow only a limited amount of three letter words and the longer the word the more points. Each tile has its own points depending on how common the letter is like scrabble, and there are blocks and things you have to navigate around. I like the game, but don’t play it as much now. Hugs
Yeah, Blossom gives you several letters, and you make 12 words, trying to use as many letters as possible, and trying to make as many pangrams as possible. I do it at http://www.merriam-webster.com/games/blossom-word-game
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi Ali. Do different dictionary groups do different words of the year? I ask because I have seen another post about word of the year and it was not … as normal a word as this one. I have also seen new words like Rizz added. Or many it is Riss. Meaning charisma. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, they each do one, based on the searches on their sites. This one is Merriam-Webster’s. I think I saw one from Oxford American, but I don’t recall the word. These’ll be everywhere. I take M-W’s Word of the Day newsletter, and play Blossom on their site. I also like Oxford American as a dictionary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ali. I love it. I love how the language changes and words that once meant one thing can also now mean a different thing entirely. Words are fluid, they are sounds we give meaning to, so if we decide to change the meanings then that is what happens. Words like culture evolve. New understandings and usage is what keep societies growing and healthy. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, sort of like how the rightwingnutjobs took an old, old term slaves and former slaves used to greet each other, reminding each other to stay aware of what’s happening around themselves, later used again by people of color after Michael Brown was murdered; the RWNJs then turned it into a synonym for liberal and decent.
Some words oughtn’t be as fluid as they sometimes become, to me. There are so many words, we don’t have to use some of them incorrectly until the dictionaries give up and redefine them to include the “new” meanings. And don’t get me started on usage! 🙂 But that’s a complaint as old as time. I remember a 5th grade substitute teacher, over 75 yo then, who used to take away a point when she heard the word “ain’t.” This was after a week of reminding us not to say ain’t. (Most of us didn’t unless we were reading it, which didn’t count.) One time a kid piped up, “Mom and Dad say ain’t isn’t a word!” The teacher said it was a word, because if a term makes sense in a sentence, that makes it a word. She did not like ain’t, it sounded bad, and she would deduct a point if she heard it from any of us in class.🤷 Just a fun story!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ali. Not enough attention is paid to vocabulary and reading in school now. I know time is at a premium in schools but when you look at the vocabulary of the president and the example it sets we need to teach kids to do better than tRump and crew of maga thugs. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
We need to do better as adults in general, really. I remember a bit Michael Seidel wrote about his wife hearing a radio broadcast talking about a citrus shortage, and wondering how they would do without peaches. Of course peaches aren’t citrus, but for many people, they became citrus in that moment. Less-than-correct has been happening all over since at least GW, I guess out of “respect”?
I don’t know what’s happening in schools in FL. I do know up here that reading and basic math are the primary thing, all tying in to whatever else must be learned in a given day/week. Comprehension of the reading is not guaranteed, of course; that’s part of what we worked on at after school, though, which really helped the ones who came. But there is vast disparity between states as to what and how public school students learn what they learn, and that”s based on funding. Which is based on elected school boards. So there we are.
But adults should do better. I’d almost bet that broadcaster knew peaches weren’t citrus, but thought they were being funny. Some days, I can only smh. And try to quit being such a tightass about language!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ali. I worry at the different standards between states. Look at Texas and Oklahoma and what they demand to be taught compared to what is taught in New England or California. We are dividing into two countries of information and knowledge vs Christian theology and fake history. Red State fox entertainment watchers whose leaders force Christian nationalist theology on their students, and the blue states that teach reality of history and science.
My question is what happens when people of both sides interact. Ron and I helped save one kid decades ago when he went to religious schools and they taught him such incorrect outrageous things as facts, we spent afternoons showing him the truth. But now two generations at least have gone through those schools. They vote on what they learned. They have no idea of the true history and they teach their own kids the lies they learned. It terrifies me.
The thing that is worse Ali. I do not know how to fight back, how to reach the misinformed people, some who have generations of being taught misinformation. Those people will not be able to accept the truth as their grandparents were taught it, their parents were taught it, and now they are teaching it to their kids. Scary to me. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does likely vary by state, but kids still go away to college. They haven’t stopped that yet! We just have to be the helpers however we can, as Mr. Rogers said. Nothing else for it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also I looked up or tried to look up blossom. But I did not find a link to how to play. I did find the game. Is it a word finding game? I play on my iPad called Word Wow. It is similar to the game Bookworm which I can not find now. You basically can run timed or not timed, and you find words in a maze set up to get to the bottom. The rules allow only a limited amount of three letter words and the longer the word the more points. Each tile has its own points depending on how common the letter is like scrabble, and there are blocks and things you have to navigate around. I like the game, but don’t play it as much now. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, Blossom gives you several letters, and you make 12 words, trying to use as many letters as possible, and trying to make as many pangrams as possible. I do it at
http://www.merriam-webster.com/games/blossom-word-game
LikeLiked by 1 person