Many of us will remember 2016 for a few words that will forever echo somewhere in the pits of our brains.
"Trump,Korea" for one, but also "bigly," "alt-right," and others we constantly heard during the presidential election season and its aftermath. But Merriam-Webster has a less discussed word on its mind that is apparently also on the minds of many dictionary users: Fascism.
SEE ALSO: CNN puts neo-Nazi statement on screenFascism, as of Nov. 29, was Merriam-Webster's most-looked-up word of the year, which means it's the leading candidate for the dictionary's annual "word of the year."
The folks behind the Merriam-Webster Twitter account are not happy with this, and on Tuesday they tried to get followers behind a campaign to look up other words.
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Merriam-Webster fans could, of course, just look up any word they wanted in hopes that one of their favorites would rise to the top.
However, the team are trying to streamline support to dethrone "fascism."
@MerriamWebster @samanthavicent I've searched "puppies" 523 times in the past 30 minutes. Anything change?
— Carter Bryant (@CarterthePower) November 29, 2016
.@CarterthePower @samanthavicent No, but lookups for 'flummadiddle' are rising.
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) November 29, 2016
No, "What if everyone committed to looking up 'flummadiddle' twice a day?" is the most desperate-sounding tweet https://t.co/JpyFvSrrgf https://t.co/FsEIN63hnl
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) November 29, 2016
'Flummadiddle' is now in our top lookups!🙌
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) November 29, 2016
Not as many as 'fascism'.
But more than that phrase from Gilmore Girls. https://t.co/3dfrQzVUGp
So there we are: Flummadiddle is perhaps your underdog candidate to defeat fascism in 2016. Bet you never thought you'd read a sentence that included those two words.
Flummadiddle, if you're wondering, is defined by Merriam-Webster as "something foolish or worthless."
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