As the Occupy Wall Street protests spread around the world, they have changed the meaning and usage of the word "Occupy." Ben Zimmer, executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus and former "On Language" columnist for the New York Times, tracks how the word's meaning has shifted over just the last month.

Nicolas Jaar – "Problems with the Sun"

For the past five year, NPR has been alone among major news organizations in its use of the words "pro-choice" and "pro-life" to describe those divided over abortion. This week that changed. NPR News Managing Editor David Sweeney explains.

During debate last weekend on the health care bill, Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) yelled out "It's a baby killer!" on the House floor and, in doing so, joined legions who have invoked this powerful defamation. American University professor Allan Lichtman says the phrase holds a prominent place in the catalog of ...

If you believe the conventional wisdom of both the White House and the punditry, America’s middle class is under attack, in decline and threatened with total extinction. But who exactly are the middle class and where is the evidence of their impending doom? Economist Stephen J. ...

The Bush Administration leaves office in a month, but will its linguistic oeuvre remain? From the "Clean Skies Inititive" to "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," Bushies paid close attention to the power of words. Republican wordsmith Frank Luntz, however, doesn't expect the terms to stick.

Last week’s Proposition 8 in California and this week’s same-sex vows in Connecticut have been about one thing: whose loving unions can legally be described as ‘marriage.’ Bob speaks with EJ Graff, author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution, about ...

Barack Obama's success in this week's primary contests took place despite an all-out effort by the Clinton campaign to paint him as "elite." Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg describes how the meaning of elite has changed over the years and psychologist Drew Westen explains why being labeled an ...

Earmarks were brought to the center of the political spotlight this week in President Bush's State of the Union speech. Once an insider term pertaining to the process of allocating funds, it is now a dirty word synonymous with pork. The Washington Post's Jonathan ...

With a tricky definition and a lag-time to compile statistics, it may take up to a year to know if we are indeed in a recession right now. In the meantime, the media speculate. Critics from the left and right weigh in ...

Robert Mukasey was confirmed this week as attorney general. The process moved the definition of waterboarding into the spotlight. As media struggle to find out what the interrogation technique entails, the working definition has been "simulated drowning." But those who've experienced and performed it say

We all use filler words like um or uh but it’s rare that we hear them in movies, news broadcasts or … uh … this show. Author Michael Erard explains that verbal blunders and hesitations reveal more than we think.

In the parlance of Republican-primary politics, “sanctuary” – as in sanctuary city – has become a bad word. In our occasional series we call Word Watch, ABC News political correspondent Jake Tapper and linguist Geoffrey Nunberg explain how a term rooted in religion was ...

Have you ever encountered a rootkit or a lifehack? Do you know what it means to be squicked? These neologisms were all runners-up for the coveted distinction of the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2005 Word of the Year. Erin McKean is the New Oxford editor-in-chief. She explains to Bob, among ...

Brooke muses over the word that takes its meaning from a onetime Supreme Court nominee, whose unsuccessful bid for the bench earned him a place in Webster's: to bork.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the National Association of Black Journalists called on media outlets to refer to people fleeing New Orleans as "evacuees," rather than "refugees." Many complied, but others, after consulting their dictionaries and style guides, decided the new term lacked the scope befitting a national catastrophe. ...

A free forum of ideas suggests a back-and-forth exchange between individuals with various perspectives. But what happens when people are sequestered to separate discursive spaces on the basis of their ideas? As we're seeing all over the Internet these days, debate breaks down, and in its place we find simply ...

Question: What do you call the demographic of American Protestants with especially conservative social beliefs? Answer: Unclear. The group formerly known as the "Christian Right" has made it known that they'd rather be referred to as "Evangelicals." Not so fast, say liberal Evangelicals who vote Democratic, and who protest the ...

There's been a lot of talk recently about the exact definition of "torture." Some say it's an accurate descriptor of what happened to Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody. Others say those detainees were not tortured, but simply "abused," and that "torture" is something out of Saddam's dungeons. In a Newsday ...

When it comes to information and inspiration for news stories, there are sources…and then there are wags. And over the years, the wags have contributed prodigiously to journalists in need. Usually, their contributions come in the form of quips. But who, in fact, are these wags? Bob sets out on ...

A free forum of ideas suggests a back-and-forth exchange between individuals with various perspectives. But what happens when people are sequestered to separate discursive spaces on the basis of their ideas? As we're seeing all over the Internet these days, debate breaks down, and in its place we find simply ...