Socialism, capitalism sends Americans to dictionary
US: Socialism and capitalism were the most looked-up words on the
Merriam-Webster website this past US election year, the publishers of
the authoritative dictionary of American English said Wednesday.
Socialism was looked up most often when healthcare made headlines and in
the days following the Democratic and Republican conventions and the
three televised debates between President Barack Obama and challenger
Mitt Romney.
"We saw a huge spike for socialism on Election Day itself, but
interest in both words was very high all year," said editor at large
Peter Sokolowski, who noted how "lookups of one word often led to
lookups of the other."
Merriam-Webster defines socialism as "any of various economic and
political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and
administration of the means of production and distribution of goods."
Capitalism is "an economic system characterized by private or
corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined
by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of
goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market."
AFP |