WordWatch roundup: catcall, haggis, and other trending words

This feature investigates interest in words influenced by news and other current events. The graphs are based on data from OxfordDictionaries.com over a four-week period and explores changes in term lookups across the entire website.

catcall, noun, verb

On 28 October, Hollaback, an organization dedicated to ending street harassment towards women, released a video it had produced of a woman being catcalled over 100 times over the course of ten hours as she walked the streets of New York City. The two-minute video has had a remarkable viral impact, accumulating more than 35 million views on YouTube as of 14 November and sparking a wide variety of media commentary. That commentary included a divisive appearance on CNN by author Steve Santagati, whose remarks were immediately branded by many as an instance of mansplaining.

The word catcall has been around since the turn of the 18^th century, when it referred to a squeaking instrument that was used to express disapproval in theaters. The sense of the word in this instance, however, as a whistle, cry, or suggestive comment expressing admiration or sexual attraction made by a man at a woman passing by (usually seen as annoying), dates to the mid-20^th century and is closely related to wolf-whistle.

haggis, noun  |  nosegay, noun

With major leaps in the number of searches for the definitions of nosegay and haggis, the British television show Gogglebox demonstrates its cultural relevance. The Channel 4 show, which follows several families and groups of friends as they watch television shows at home over the course of a week, brought up both haggis and nosegays in the episode that aired on 31 October.

Haggis – everyone’s favorite sheep-based staple of Scottish cuisine – came up in the context of a character wondering about its plural. The audience, it seems, didn’t know either; the most common haggis-related searches on OxfordDictionaries.com that night and the next couple of days were “plural of haggis” and “haggis plural.” (OxfordDictionaries.com lists the plural as either haggis or haggises.) Nosegay, on the other hand, achieved momentary interest on the show when it came up in a game show and several of the characters were not sure of the definition. One character even took out his smartphone to check, and it seems that the audience followed suit. A nosegay is a typically sweet-scented, small bunch of flowers.

armistice, noun

Commemorating the cessation of hostilities between the Allies and Germany at the end of World War I and those who died fighting in the war, Armistice Day is observed in countries all over the world. But depending on where you are, the official name of the day may vary. While some countries continue to mark the day as Armistice Day, others refer to it as Remembrance Day (or Remembrance Sunday). In the US, the day is known as Veterans Day, and commemorates not just the war dead, but US veterans of all the armed forces. The word armistice itself is derived from modern Latin armistitium, which literally means arms-stoppage.

stellar, adjective

Although it is tempting to attribute this spike to the film Interstellar, it is far more likely that this word is related to two new smartphones on the market in India. Earlier this week, two new “Stellar” smartphones were released by Indian company Spice Telecom, generating lots of excitement in the Indian technology media and in social media. Describing something that relates to a star or stars or something that is exceptionally good or outstanding, the word stellar comes from stella, the Latin word for star.

night crawler, noun

With the recent opening of the film Nightcrawler on 31 October, it’s not surprising to see interest in the word spike. Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, the film follows a sociopathic freelance journalist (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he observes (and also participates in) the criminal underworld that comes out to play after dark.

The first sense of the term night crawler listed on OxfordDictionaries.com, however, is not a human one. This first sense of the word actually refers to a species of earthworm, which comes to the surface during the night. When applied to people, the term refers to someone who is active or stays out at night. While the term usually suggests those who frequent nightclubs and other late-night establishments, the film clearly seeks out a more negative and criminal association than just late-night partying.