Suddenly on everyone's lips, "bailout" is top word

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Everyone seems to want one, but apparently a lot of Americans aren't sure what a "bailout" is.

The word, which shot to prominence amid the financial meltdown, was looked up so often at Merriam-Webster's online dictionary site that the publisher says "bailout" was an easy choice for its 2008 Word of the Year.

The rest of the list is not cheerful. It includes "trepidation," "precipice" and "turmoil."

"There's something about the national psyche right now that is looking up words that seem to suggest fear and anxiety," said John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president and publisher.

Several well-worn terms from the presidential campaign also made the cut: "maverick," "bipartisan" and, coming in at No. 2, "vet": to appraise and evaluate, as in vetting a vice-presidential pick.

But none topped "bailout," a seemingly simple word that suddenly took on $700 billion worth of importance in September — and prompted hundreds of thousands of online lookups within a few weeks.

How big was "bailout," etymologically speaking? While Congress was considering the enormous financial-industry rescue package this fall, searches for "bailout" eclipsed perennial puzzlers such as "irony" and the bedeviling duo of "affect" and "effect."

So how does Merriam-Webster define "bailout"? As "a rescue from financial distress."

"People seem to have a general understanding of the word 'bailout,' but they seem to want to better understand its application, any connotations it may have and shades of meaning," he said.

The publisher usually picks its Word of the Year by considering the number of lookups and whether certain unusual terms submitted by online users have slipped into everyday discussion.

That's how the whimsical and technology-driven term "W00t" — spelled with two zeros, used by online game players to express triumph or happiness — gained the top spot in 2007.

But this year, Merriam-Webster switched its procedure to consider only the volume of lookups of words, noting "bailout" and others were looked up so frequently that their importance could not be ignored.

Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the American Dialect Society — which picked "subprime" as its 2007 word of the year — said "bailout" is a good choice. It may even be in the running for the American Dialect Society's 2008 word when it is selected in January, he said.