It provoked protests in European capitals from Athens to Brussels, hurt sales of Heineken beer and stole the spotlight at a June G20 summit in Canada. "Austerity" is now Merriam-Webster's top word of 2010.
"Austerity," which the Springfield, Massachusetts-based publisher defines as "enforced or extreme economy," spiked to the top of the company's top ten list based on the number of searches at its website, www.merriam-webster.com.
Coupled with No. 2 "pragmatic," the list reflects a year when searchers were still worried about a rocky world economy, said Peter Sokolowski, the dictionary's editor at large.
"It's a serious list for a serious year," Sokolowski said in a phone interview on Monday.
The word "austerity" cropped up most in connection with European governments' efforts to chop spending. Merriam-Webster did not disclose numbers on individual searches.
"Because it has such a clear implication for personal finance, it is easy to apply this to yourself," Sokolowski said. "That makes it a word that people look up.
It also had implications for Heineken, the Netherlands company that cited austerity measures as one of the factors weighing its beer sales this year.
{{/usCountry}}It also had implications for Heineken, the Netherlands company that cited austerity measures as one of the factors weighing its beer sales this year.
{{/usCountry}}The rest of the list included "moratorium," "socialism," "bigot," "doppelganger," "shellacking," ebullient," "dissident" and "furtive."
A search through a year of coverage of European budget matters shows that the word "austerity" was more frequently used by its opponents than its supporters, though European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet did rise to its defense in a June interview with Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.
"As regards the economy, the idea that austerity measures could trigger stagnation is incorrect," Trichet said, according to an English-language transcript published on the ECB's website.
Others had a less-welcoming view of the new top-searched word.
"This is the start of the fight, not the end. That our voice be heard is our major demand today -- against austerity and for jobs and growth," John Monks, head of the European Trade Union Confederation, told a September rally in Brussels.