Lingerie And Other Trending Words On Dictionary.com

lingerie

Our word with the highest spike in searches this week is: lingerie. Up 903% from last week, people were either getting freaky this week or the following stories inspired their searches:

1. CVS announced this week that they will not “alter the shape, size, or proportion of the model’s face, [including] remov[ing] lines, or enhanc[ing] it in any way” in their beauty images. They are piggybacking on American Eagle’s Aerie brand, and its success from not altering lingerie models in advertising images.

2. The Queen of England has fired her lingerie designer, Rigby & Peller, this week. Julie Kenton (who is 82 by the way) owns the lingerie company, and she also recently published her memoirs in which she revealed details from the royal bra fittings of not only the queen but also Princess Diana. And, those stories got her (and her company) the royal boot.

3. Candice Swanepoel was named the most influential lingerie model on Instagram. She apparently has 11.8 million followers and makes quite a bit of money for each image she posts.

skol

In case you aren’t a sports fan, football is in playoff season this month. And, making it to the playoffs are the typically down-and-out team: the Minnesota Vikings.

The Minnesota Vikings fans are excited to say the least, and their team chant has been ringing out loudly and proudly across television screens. What’s the chant, you ask? “Skol Vikings!”

According to Sports Illustrated, “It is the team’s Viking war chant and comes from the Swedish, Danish and Noreigian word “Skål.” A Skål was a bowl that was often filled with beer and shared among friends so the word became a way of saying “Cheers!”

And so, skol spiked in searches this week to a 758% increase. Go Vikings?

eugenics

Eugenics, meaning “breeding to improve the human population by excluding people with undesirable traits,” is a hot topic this week. Which of course led to an increase in searches (210%) for the word.

Vox published an article stating that Trump’s “sh!thole countries” remark from last week was basically a form of eugenics. And, another leadership figure (this time in the UK) has also been accused of embracing eugenics. “Toby Young, appointee to the UK’s newly established Office of Students, was denounced in the House of Commons for having written favorably of ‘progressive eugenics'” (acsh.org). He has since stepped down from his position.

Keep an eye out for this topic to continue popping up in the news in this current climate.

psyche

Up in searches by 81% this week is the word psyche. And, we attribute this one to The Washington Post and their article “The Health 202: Mental-health professionals can’t agree on evaluating Trump’s psyche.”

We don’t think anyone is surprised that Trump has proven to be someone who is extremely hard to read.

erstwhile

Erstwhile . . . sounds like we just went back to the 1500s, right? Well, this word was up 329% in searches this week. Now, the reason why won’t take us back to the 1500s, but we will take a brief trip into the past to visit the island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay.

The Washington Post picked up a story from The Bulletin (an Oregon paper) about the “erstwhile prison gardens that are still in bloom” on Alcatraz. At least there’s one good thing that sprouted from such a scary place.

antithetical

Antithetical was up 240% in searches due to good ol’ Mitt Romney. He came out publicly saying that Trump’s “sh!thole countries” remark (yup, this again) was antithetical to American values.

The poverty of an aspiring immigrant’s nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent w/ America’s history and antithetical to American values. May our memory of Dr. King buoy our hope for unity, greatness, & “charity for all.”

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) January 15, 2018

subpoena

Yikes, a lot of people were subpoenaed this week, which seemed to have drive searches for the word up 171%.

1. Emeril. Well, not Emeril exactly but one of his cooking show tv producers was subpoenaed to turn over the financial records from the show to Florida’s House of Reps. Why? Apparently, the show received funds from the state’s tourism agency and now the state wants to know how they used them.

2. Steve Bannon. Robert Mueller subpoenaed Steve to appear before a grand jury this week after the release of the book Fire and Fury.

3. Trump Organization. Well, they haven’t been yet, but they might be soon. According to ABCNews “Democratic members of the House oversight committee asked the Republican chairman to begin a serious investigation into President Donald Trump’s conflicts of interests. They also sought a subpoena of the Trump Organization to produce documents that were requested months ago.”

ounce

The word ounce was up 503% this week; that’s a lot for such a small unit of measurement, no?

Well, we are going to attribute this one to Forbes. They published this article this week: “An Ounce of Prevention – How CrowdStrike Fits Into A Balanced Cybersecurity Portfolio.” Simple.

pickle

Aw, pickle. This one is a new trending word, it’s never trended before! So, what happened this week that gave it the push into Trending Words status?

Well, we’re back to the snow. Some people are looking for safer alternatives to road salt, and pickle juice is one option!

And, then there’s this new sports drink trend (actually, it’s really not new, The Pickle Juice Company was founded in 2001!) . . . and you guessed it, it’s pickle juice! And, it’s just been certified as organic. Even better.