Trump’s ‘slime ball’ tweet sparks rush to online dictionary
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US President Donald Trump’s denunciation of former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey as a “slime ball” on Friday triggered a 60,000-percent jump in lookups for the word on Merriam-Webster’s website, the dictionary publisher said.
The disparaging term was among the top words looked up after Trump struck back over news reports that quoted Comey as harshly critical of the president in a memoir due to be published next week, Merriam Webster said in a statement. Puzzled readers turned to their dictionaries after Trump wrote on Twitter that Comey was “a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible director of the FBI.”
Within hours, “slimeball” had become the second most sought term on the dictionary website.
Merriam-Webster, a Springfield, Massachusetts publisher of dictionaries since the 19th century, defines “slimeball” as “a morally repulsive or odious person.” The term became common only in the late 20th century.
“Although Trump rendered the word as an open compound (slime ball) in his tweet, the traditional form is as a closed compound (slimeball),” it said on a grammatical note.
Friday’s most-searched word was “kakistocracy,” according to Merriam-Webster, meaning a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.