Asylum

When:

Lookups spiked on August 1, 2013.

Photo: Wikipedia

Why:

Russia granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked information about governmental surveillance practices.

Asylum means "protection given by a government to someone who has left another country in order to escape being harmed." It comes from the Greek word meaning "inviolable," which in Greek literally means "exempt from seizure."