There were no words for the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Unless you’re the dictionary. Then you have all of the words.
The Twitter account for Merriam-Webster treated the contest like a hotly disputed game of Scrabble, checking the validity of some of the words used and shedding some insight into what people were searching for during the debate.
For instance, much to our horror, we learned that “unproud” is actually a word, one that apparently applies to Trump’s 3am tweetstorms. Here’s the transcript from the New York Times:
TRUMP: Now, tweeting happens to be a modern day form of communication. I mean, you can like it or not like it. I have, between Facebook and Twitter, I have almost 25 million people. It’s a very effective way of communication. So you can put it down, but it is a very effective form of communication. I’m not unproud of it, to be honest with you.
Yes, ‘unproud’ is a word. #debate https://t.co/elHhi3D1lt
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 10, 2016
“Unproud,” top lookup @MerriamWebster, goes back to 1500s, but has never before been applied to Twitter follower counts. #makinghistory
— Kory Stamper (@KoryStamper) October 10, 2016
While Libertarian Gary Johnson got thrown under the bus over his lapse on Aleppo, it appears most American are equally unfamiliar with the Syrian city.
Note that more people are looking up ‘lepo-‘ (as in, “what’s a lepo?”) than ‘Aleppo’. #debate https://t.co/SvAqKWp3bz
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 10, 2016
Your debate lookups @MerriamWebster, in order:
— Kory Stamper (@KoryStamper) October 10, 2016
lepo-
bigly
demogogic
demagogue
locker-room
bipartisan
Aleppo
socialism
petulant
debate
People also seemed disappointed that Clinton didn’t refer to Trump as the monster on Stranger Things but rather his “demagogic rhetoric.”
CLINTON: My vision of America is an America where everyone has a place, if you’re willing to work hard, you do your part, you contribute to the community. That’s what America is. That’s what we want America to be for our children and our grandchildren.
It’s also very short-sighted and even dangerous to be engaging in the kind of demagogic rhetoric that Donald has about Muslims. We need American Muslims to be part of our eyes and ears on our front lines. I’ve worked with a lot of different Muslim groups around America. I’ve met with a lot of them, and I’ve heard how important it is for them to feel that they are wanted and included and part of our country, part of our homeland security, and that’s what I want to see.
To the people making Stranger Things jokes: no, but we have an entry for that too. https://t.co/DtJiQrJzCJ
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 10, 2016
Yup, “demagogic” spiking @MerriamWebster now. (Yes, HRC gave a valid pronunciation). Common this year: https://t.co/K1tUiUtKYy
— Kory Stamper (@KoryStamper) October 10, 2016
Merriam-Webster threw some shade after Trump claimed to “have the best words.”
To recap: bigly is a real word. Trump said ‘big league’, which is also a real word. We don’t enter ‘big league’ as an adverb, however.
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 10, 2016
The account also delivered the hottest take of the evening.
“It’s just words.” #debate
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 10, 2016
Now it needs to hear from you:
The first two debates are over. Time for a poll. #debate
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 10, 2016
The jury’s still out on that one.
H/T Mashable
