Re: most looked-up words

Tristan McLeay wrote:
> And Rosta wrote:
>
> >http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/04words.htm
> >
> >lists the top 10 words most looked up in the online dictionary
> >(excluding hard-to-spell words like _accommodate_ and words
> >whose tabooness imparts a frisson to their looking up).
> >
> >1. blog
> >2. incumbent
> >3. electoral
> >4. insurgent
> >5. hurricane
> >6. cicada
> >7. peloton : noun (1951) : the main body of riders in a bicycle race
> >8. partisan
> >9. sovereignty
> >10. defenestration
> >
Where have these people been for the last 12 months? :-(((

> >For most of the entries it's easy to see why they're on the list,
> >but _cicada_, _peloton_ (a word wholly new to me) and
> >_defenestration_ perplex me. Perhaps in my habitual failure to
> >heed the News, I have missed major stories on these topics?
> >
Cicadas (sometimes called "17-year locusts") were in the news here in the US
over the summer, when one of the huge 17-year swarms emerged (mainly on the
East Coast, NYC-Washington area, so of course that made them newsworthy).
Peloton in connection with the Tour de France?? New to me, too..... Our
public radio news also mentioned the frequency of "defenestration" the other
day, and I was surprised too.  Have those crazy Czechs been at it again?
>
> I imagination 'defenestration' found it's way because it's such a cool
> word, who else would've thought there'd be a word for throwing things
> out of windows?
>
> >At any rate, I will wager that no conlang has words for all 10.
> >My conlang has no word for any of the 10. But one supersized
> >all-American kudo to the conlang with the words for the most
> >of the 10...
> >
Alas, Kash has only _yanjakrum_ (n.anim.) hurricane, typhoon (compd. of
wind+destroy). I guess I could create "electoral" quickly enough. Otherwise,
Kash political life is pretty humdrum. As for "incumbent", I'm thinking that
some legislative jobs (certainly small-town councils, and ward or
neighborhood councils in cities, maybe even the national legislature) are by
lot, like jury duty-- you're called, and by gum, you serve........
>
> Also, ten points to anyone who can tell me what a 'kudo' is.
At the risk of correcting And, IIRC it should be _kudos_ (is Greek, no?,
plural kudoi?); though we seem to treat it as sing. kudo pl. kudos.  It
seems to mean, generally, "compliments"-- e.g. "Tristan's conlang has
received kudos from everyone"-- perhaps sometimes prize or reward??

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