Dictionary.com declares ‘woman’ as 2022 Word of the Year

According to Dictionary.com, searches for the word ‘woman’ increased more than 1,400 per cent this year, which is a massive leap for a word used so commonly.

From Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's appointment as the first Black woman as the US Supreme Court justice to the overturning of Roe vs Wade, banning abortion, to protests in Iran and the death of the world's longest-serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, womanhood has been a frequent search throughout this year – all of it leading Dictionary.com to declare ‘woman’ as the Word of the Year for 2022.

Iran anti-Hijab protest: A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who died in custody. (AP/Representational image)

“Our selection of woman as our 2022 Word of the Year reflects how the intersection of gender, identity, and language dominates the current cultural conversation and shapes much of our work as a dictionary,” Dictionary.com wrote in its report.

According to Dictionary.com, searches for the word ‘woman’ increased more than 1,400 per cent, which is a massive leap for a word used so commonly. The surge was double the typical annual search volume for the word, specifically, rising at the end of March after US Justice Jackson's selection, during which was asked by Senator Marsha Blackburn to give a definition for the word ‘woman’.

The lookups involved not just the word ‘woman’ but its definition, which led to it becoming the centre of discussion.

“It was a rare case of not just a word in the spotlight, but a definition. We at Dictionary.com weren’t the only ones to take notice. The prominence of the question and the attention it received demonstrate how issues of transgender identity and rights are now frequently at the forefront of our national discourse. More than ever, we are all faced with questions about who gets to identify as a woman (or a man, or neither). The policies that these questions inform transcend the importance of any dictionary definition—they directly impact people’s lives,” the report stated.

Definition and etymology of ‘woman’, according to Dictionary.com:

Definition of the word 'woman'. (dictionary,com)

The word ‘woman’ is derived from the Old English wīfman – a combination of ‘wīf’ and ‘man’. The first records of the word woman in English come from as early as the year 900.

In Old English, wīf meant “female” or “woman”, originating from the word ‘wife’, which originally could refer to a woman regardless of marital status. The word ‘man’, meanwhile, originally simply meant “person”.

Prominent women with highest searches in 2022:

• Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch who died in September
• Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in Iran, who died in custody of the government’s so-called morality police, sparking outrage and protest
• Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who in April became the first Black woman to be confirmed as a US Supreme Court justice
• Tennis superstar Serena Williams, who announced that she will be “evolving away from tennis”
• WNBA star Brittney Griner’s internationally condemned imprisonment by Russia and her subsequent release