While it's difficult to get at exactly why people look words up in dictionaries, online or on paper, it's clear that in contentious 2016, fear of "otherness" bruised the collective consciousness around the globe.
The Brexit vote, police violence against people of color, Syria's refugee crisis, transsexual rights and the U.S. presidential race were among prominent developments that drove debate — and spikes in lookups of the word, said Jane Solomon, one of the dictionary site's lexicographers.
The 21-year-old site defined xenophobia as "fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers." And it plans to expand its entry to include fear or dislike of "customs, dress and cultures of people with backgrounds different from our own," Solomon said in a recent interview.
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2 comments:
Just because I don't want to destroy the culture I have known my entire life in the Country does not mean I am either afraid of, or hate foreigners.
Forgive me for NOT liking and admiring groups of people who ADVOCATE the murder of children, setting women on fire, killing amd maiming innocents, and preaching the total destruction of Israel.
People who kill gay individuals, stone women, cheer at the deaths of women and children, and believe that their religion overrules any laws they are supposed to live under and obey.
Forgive me for wanting to see the FACES of people in public. Forgive me for thinking that our Constitution is the law, not some edict passed down from a pedohile and murderer, who worshipped a fake god.
Understand this -- I, and millions of others, are NOT afraid (phobia) of other cultures. We've welcomed many of them and will continue to do that.
But don't confuse fear with disgust. We are not afraid. We're pissed.
Angry that politicians who send THEIR kids to private schools and live in gated and guarded communites and work with an ARMY of armed guards to protect them would allow thousands upon thousands of possible killers into OUR midst, telling US to be "inclusive" and kind.
I think some things are about to change.....
Cheer THAT.
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