Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

What Words Puzzled Chicagoans The Most In 2016?

By Sam Cholke | December 26, 2016 6:06am | Updated on December 27, 2016 8:08am
 Merriam-Webster reported that Chicagoans spent a lot of time this year looking up
Merriam-Webster reported that Chicagoans spent a lot of time this year looking up "mature," "hypocrisy" and "common sense."
View Full Caption
Shutterstock

HYDE PARK — There are a few words Chicagoans just need to be certain about, according to Merriam Webster.

The dictionary has released the list of words Chicagoans searched for the most over the last year.

Some of them were the same as the nation as a whole, including “irregardless.”

Allie Egan-Sherry of Merriam Webster said “irregardless” got a huge number of people looking up the definition in Chicago and across the country after it was used by commentators during the World Series between the Cubs and Cleveland Indians.

Words like that make sense — it’s said in passing by someone and something about it just doesn’t sound right.

For Chicagoans, “mature” sounds like a word, but is it really? A lot of people in Chicago had to look it up.

Merriam Webster would not release the number of times the word was searched, but it was near the top of the list for words Chicagoans were struggling with, but did not climb the top 10 for the nation as a whole.

You might think that the meaning of “hypocrisy” would be common sense in a windy city with a history of politicians blowing hot air. But “hypocrisy” and “common sense” were both things Chicagoans had to look up a lot over the last year.

Hopefully, that’s commentary on Chicago’s ability to spell and not another knock on our politics.

Who knows, we’re apparently not too in-tune with the long-term ramifications of hypocrisy or a lack of common sense because Chicagoans had to look up “legacy” quite a bit as well.

There is something vaguely political about the entire list, including where it lines up with the top 10 words for the country overall. You can almost hear “ignore,” “arrogant” and “establishment” intoned in the voice of presidential candidates reading through the list.

The list of word most searched by Chicagoans for 2016 include:

“irregardless”

“arrogant”

“clubbable”

“establishment”

“ignore”

“definition”

“mature”

“hypocrisy”

“legacy"

“common sense”

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.