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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2015)
U.S.A. Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER January 5, 2015 FREE HOME REPAIRS FOR PORTLAND SENIOR & DISABLED HOMEOWNERS 2 8 t h a nnua l nei gh bor h ood Plumbing Electrical Carpentry Call (503) 501-5719 or visit https://reachcdc.org Portland Housing Bureau Interpretation services available Sa t ur da yS 9 :3 0 a .m.-3 P.m. JAN 2 4 , 2 015 | r osa pa r k s el ement a r y s ch ool | 89 6 0 n w ool s ey a ve ¡Clases en español! FEB 21, 2 015 | da vi d dougl a s h i gh Sch ool | 10 01 s e 13 5 t h Ave TOP OF THE HEAP. A Merriam-Webster dictionary sits atop a cita- tion file for the 2014 word of the year — “culture” — at the dictionary publisher’s offices in Springfield, Massachusetts. Citation files are nota- tions of a word used in context over time. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last at its homepage, Merriam-Webster.com. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) Merriam-Webster names ‘culture’ word of the year w w w .por t l a ndor egon.gov/bps /f i f | 5 0 3 -8 2 3 -4 3 0 9 State Farm ® Providing Insurance and Financial Services Presented by the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois 61710 Wayne Nishimura Ins. Agency Inc. Give blood. Wayne Nishimura, Agent 14780 SW Osprey Drive, Suite 246 Beaverton, OR 97007-8424 Bus.: (503) 579-3005 w Toll-free: 1-800-555-6802 wayne.nishimura.gyd8@statefarm.com To schedule a blood donation call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or visit HelpSaveALife.org. 24 Hour Good Neighbor Service ® By Leanne Italie The Associated Press EW YORK — A nation, a workplace, an ethnicity, a passion, an outsized personality. The people who comprise these things, who fawn or rail against them, are behind Merriam-Webster’s 2014 word of the year: “culture.” The word joins Oxford Dictionaries’ “vape,” a darling of the e-cigarette movement, and “exposure,” declared the year’s winner at Dictionary.com during a time of tragedy and fear due to Ebola. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last on Merriam-Webster.com, along with notable, often culture- driven — if you will — spikes of concentrated interest. In the No. 2 spot is “nostalgia,” during a year of big 50th anniversaries pegged to 1964: the start of the free speech movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the birth of the Ford Mustang, and the British Invasion heralded by the landing of the Beatles on U.S. soil for the first time. Nostalgia was followed by insidious, legacy, feminism, and a rare multiword phrase that can be looked up in total, in a foreign language at that: the French je ne sais quoi. The Springfield, Massachusetts-based dictionary giant filters out perennial favorites when picking word of the year, but does that formula leave them chasing language fads? “We’re simply using the word culture more frequently,” said Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam- Webster. “It may be a fad. It may not. It may simply be evolution.” Sokolowski noted that the reasons words are looked up aren’t just about not knowing what they mean. Sometimes, he said, we seek inspiration or a way to check in on ourselves. Of more than 100 million lookups on the website each month and a similar number on the company’s app, culture enjoyed a 15 percent year-over- year increase. Percentage-wise, it doesn’t sound like much, but the raw number in that stratosphere is large, Sokolowski said. He wouldn’t disclose actual numbers, though, citing the proprietary nature of that data for a company still privately held. Sokolowski is a lexicographer, not a mind reader, so his observations about why any single word takes off in terms of lookups is well-informed but theoretical. “The word culture’s got a cultural story. We have noticed for years that culture has a cyclical spike every year at around Labor Day. That is to say back-to-school time during the month of September, so we’ve been watching this word spike at that time for years,” he said by telephone from Springfield. “In recent years we’ve seen similar spikes at the end of semesters during finals.” But traffic throughout the year indicates that culture is a “chameleon,” Sokolowski said. “When you put it next to another word it means something very different. For example, ‘consumer culture’ or ‘rape culture,’ which we’ve been reading about lately.” There’s the “culture of transparency” in government and business, and “celebrity culture,” and the “culture of winning” in sports, he noted. “It’s a word that can be very specific, like ‘test prep culture,’ or it can be very, very broad, like ‘coffee culture.”’ One standout reference that caught Sokolowski’s eye in The New Yorker’s December issue is from a new book, How Continued on page 4 N Mark your calendar! The Year of the Sheep begins February 19, 2015. Display advertising space reservations for our special Year of the Sheep issue are due Monday, February 2 at 5:00pm. The Asian Reporter’s Lunar New Year special issue will be published on Monday, February 16, 2015.