Nation & World

NEW YORK — "Fracking" is stirring a linguistic and political debate as controversial as what it defines.

Fracking — as in hydraulic fracturing, a technique long used by the oil and gas industry to free oil and gas from rock — is not in the dictionary.

Indeed, the industry hates it and President Obama didn't use it in his State of the Union speech, even as he praised federal subsidies for it.

The word sounds nasty, and environmental advocates used that to generate opposition — and revulsion — to what they say is a damaging process that threatens water supplies.

"It obviously calls to mind other less socially polite terms, and folks have been able to take advantage of that," said Kate Sinding, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drilling issues.

One of the chants at an anti-drilling rally in Albany, N.Y., this month was "No fracking way!"

Industry executives say the word has become a slur that should not be used by media outlets that strive for objectivity.

"It's a co-opted word and a co-opted spelling used to make it look as offensive as people can try to make it look," said Michael Kehs, vice president for Strategic Affairs at Chesapeake Energy, the nation's second-largest natural-gas producer.

Michael Weiss, a professor of linguistics at Cornell University, said the word originated as simple industry jargon, but has taken on a negative meaning over time, much like the word "silly" once meant "holy."

"When you hear the word 'fracking,' what lights up your brain is the profanity," said Deborah Mitchell, who teaches marketing at the University of Wisconsin's School of Business. "Negative things come to mind."

Obama did not use the word in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, when he said his administration will help ensure natural gas will be developed safely, suggesting it would support 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

The drilling industry generally spells the word without a "K," using terms such as "frac job" or "frac fluid."

Historian Daniel Yergin spells it "fraccing" in his book, "The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World." The glossary maintained by the oil-field-services company Schlumberger includes only "frac" and "hydraulic fracturing."

"Fracking" began appearing in the media and in oil-and-gas company materials long before the process became controversial. It first was used in an Associated Press story in 1981.

The same year, an oil and gas company called Velvet Exploration, based in British Columbia, issued a news release that detailed its plans to complete "fracking" a well.