What do spivvy, smuggery, stingo, and schlemiel have in common?
Sure, they begin with the letter S. But what鈥檚 more, they are also some of the leading lookups on Dictionary.com since July 8.
Since our introduction of it in our last trending writeup, our ticker has been tirelessly scrolling across our homepage.听 And, we’ve continued to watch.
So, let鈥檚 get started with our top five terms. Then, we鈥檒l move on to some interesting themes we found in the data.
1. Spivvy
Do you look spivvy听in your skivvies? The top trending word on our ticker is spivvy, which spiked at a spectacular 209,000% in search interest on July 8 compared to the previous day.
Spivvy is a 鈥渟piffy鈥� Britishism. Recorded in the early 1900s, spiv (adjective, spivvy) is a British slang term for a kind of 鈥減etty criminal鈥濃�攁 person who doesn鈥檛 hold down a regular job, gets by with street smarts, and often dresses flashily while doing it. Sounds more like a contestant on The Bachelorette 鈥�
This idea of 鈥渇lashy dress鈥� suggests the word may be connected to spiffy, which dates back to the 19th-century for 鈥渨ell-dressed, spruce.鈥� Or, as we might say in today鈥檚 slang, drip, poppin鈥�, sauce. Let鈥檚 bring back spivvy, right?
2. Nephanalysis
We like to think of this one as a 鈥渨eather map.鈥� More technically, nephanalysis鈥�which skyrocketed up 74,100% on July 10鈥攊s 鈥渁 map or chart showing the distribution of types and amounts of clouds and precipitation at a given time.鈥� Yup, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas made for a much simpler title.
The –analysis part of nephanalysis is clear enough, but the neph– part is a bit cloudier.
It comes from the Greek word for 鈥渃loud,鈥� 苍茅辫丑辞蝉, related to nebula, nebulous, and nebulated, a recent 51吃瓜 of the Day. Then there’s nephology is 鈥渢he study of clouds.鈥� Doesn鈥檛 that sound dreamy?
3. Innumerate
If you鈥檙e reading this, you鈥檙e not illiterate. But, if you鈥檙e innumerate, you might have trouble parsing out what it means that searches for this term on July 10 climbed 68,600%.
Interest in听innumerate spiked after a user thoughtfully inquired after a numerical counterpart to illiterate. It’s听innumerate, and in its everyday sense, means 鈥渦nable to do mathematics.鈥� Hey, we鈥檙e word nerds, but that doesn鈥檛 mean we can鈥檛 also be math people.
Heck, we'll throw in an extra "n" and call it innumerate.
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom)
4. Labarum
One of the reasons we love our ticker is that it reminds us of all the great words we鈥檝e hoarded away in the dictionary 鈥� not that we鈥檝e, er, forgotten any single one of 鈥榚m.
On July 10, labarum was hoisted up 60,800% in search interest from July 9. It can mean 鈥渁n ecclesiastical standard or banner, as for carrying in procession.鈥� (Think of the flag-like object priests carry down an aisle.) But, labarum originally refers to the imperial banner of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who legally sanctioned Christian worship in his realm.
His labarum notably featured a symbol (and another interesting word) called the Christogram: 鈽�.
5. Smuggery
Why settle for calling out someone鈥檚 smugness when you can say smuggery? On July 9, smuggery soared 56,400% 鈥� which we鈥檙e very satisfied with.
Yep, smuggery is 鈥渟mugness,鈥� particularly “the condition of or an instance of being smug”鈥攜ou know, like that dudebro sliding into your DMs getting all mansplain-y about what a labarum is because he took that History of Ancient Rome class that one time.
The –ery is a noun-forming suffix denoting such things as occupation, business, calling or condition, and goods or products in familiar words like archery, bakery, or trickery.
But, in a word like smuggery, it has a snarky, even belittling force. Try this –ery on for size: I can look up labarum on Dictionary.com without your mansplainery, thank you very much!
OK, what are other goodies are hiding in the past week鈥檚 trending data?
All creatures, great and small
Day after day, we see tons of technical terms in science and technology get our ticker moving. In this batch of trending terms, it seems the aspiring biologists and naturalists among us were quite curious, as many top lookups concerned animals.
Some of these critter terms are familiar: alpaca (up 4,000% on July 10), lamprey (1,700%, July 16), rodent (18,300%, July 10), and wombat (6,400%, July 12).
Others are more obscure: baya (an Indian weaverbird; up 10,900% on July 15), geoduck (very much not a duck but 鈥� an excited-looking clam; 听 2,000%, July 11), sparling (a kind of fish; 1,600%, July 16), tahr (a kind of goat; 4,000%, July 8), and webworm (not an internet virus, but a moth; 2,000%, July 11).
Music to the ears
Our seventh-most top search this time around is a word for les artistes: mahlstick, searches for which shot up 50,200% on July 9. A Dutch-derived term, a mahlstick is 鈥渁 stick with a padded tip used to support an artist鈥檚 working hand.鈥� The variant maulstick also spiked nearly 10,000% the same day.
But, it was the lexicon of a different art form鈥攎usic鈥攖hat made for a real motif in our data:
- eurythmic (up 31,400% on July 13): 鈥渉aving a pleasing rhythm鈥�
- glissando (11,167%, July 10): 鈥減erformed with a gliding effect, as sliding the fingers over piano keys or harp strings鈥�
- lydian (21,700%, July 11): 鈥渟ensuously sweet music,鈥� among other modes of meaning
- oratorio (1,700%, July 8): “a type of musical composition piece with a religious text”
- sitar (2,000%, July 13): “a type of Indian string instrument with a long, broad, fretted neck”
- tempi (2,800%, July 13): the plural of tempo
Merrie Olde England?
Our top term, spivvy, points to another theme in the data: British slang. Our ninth-most top ticker trend in this set is stingo, 鈥渟trong beer,鈥� which went straight to our heads at a 45,300% increase on July 12. Muggins, which can mean 鈥渇ool鈥� in the UK, rose 2,750% in searches on July 15. A more formal entrant from the Queen鈥檚 English is mattins, a British spelling of matins, up 24,500% on July 17 and referring to “a type of religious service at the early hours.”
The UK can鈥檛 claim all the Dictionary.com love, though: searches fueled the Australian and New Zealand term bowser up 23,500% on July 15. This is not the turtle-oid Nintendo villain, though. It鈥檚 a pump at a a gas station Down Under.
Political debates
No trending words article these days is possible, it seems, without at least pinch of politics. Interestingly, there鈥檚 only a handful of words that the ticker registered in this past week or so that we feel comfortable immediately connecting to current events.
One is bartender, which got served an 1,800% increase on July 8. Interest in the term could be related to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has gotten attention for her work as a bartender before becoming a progressive superstar. Another is deportee, or 鈥渄eported person,鈥� which was up 3,600% on July 17, perhaps due to ongoing debates about immigration in the US. Campaigning (up 5,600%) and perjured (3,100%) both jumped on July 9.
Some other political words that trended aren鈥檛 as newsworthy, but they鈥檙e still notable:
- Danelaw (up 22,100% on July 12), referring to “the laws enforced under the parts of northeast England where the Danes settled in the 9th century”
- elitism (23, 900%, July 14), which commonly means 鈥減ride in belonging to a select or favored group鈥�
- timocracy (36,100%, July 12): 鈥渁 form of government in which love of honor is the dominant motive of the rulers,鈥� from Greek 迟墨尘岣� (鈥渉onor, worth鈥�)
So many goldurned words!
We can鈥檛 find a rhyme or reason behind many of the top ticker terms week after week鈥攜ou might call the data vagarious, or 鈥渆rratic, capricious,鈥� which also happened to climb 6,600% on July 9. Here are some other wonderful, if random, words that trended.
- encarnalize (up 20, 600% on July 9): 鈥渢o invest with a worldly or sensual nature or form鈥�
- eutaxy (5,800%, July 10): 鈥済ood order or management鈥�
- gaposis (5,600%, July 9): a humorous term for 鈥渁 noticeable gap, as between buttons in a shirt鈥�
- goldurned (24,200%, July 14): a euphemism for 鈥済odd*mned鈥�
- gymnasiarch (21,1112%, July 16): 鈥渁 magistrate in ancient Greece who superintended the gymnasia and public games in certain cities鈥�
- lapidation (14,790%, July 11): 鈥渟toning (someone, as to death)鈥�
- longanimity (3,200%, July 11): 鈥減atient endurance of hardship, injures, or offense; forbearance鈥�
- nates (40,700%, July 16): the 鈥渂uttocks鈥�
- pullulation (14,936%, July 8): 鈥済ermination; sprouting; increasing rapidly; teeming鈥�
- schlemiel (16,700%, July 8): Yiddish for 鈥渁n awkward and unlucky person for whom things never turn out right鈥�
And oh, scrota, the Latin plural of scrotum. Go figure. It trended up 32,500% on July 16.
