As the New School Year Begins, a Spike in Lookups for 'Culture'

The start of the new academic year always results in an increase in lookups for culture.

For example, a few course titles in one catalogue: "Nationalism, Colonialism, and Culture," "American Material Culture," and "Visual Culture in Early Modern Spain."

Culture means "the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time," "the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic" and "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education," among other things. Exploring the boundaries of this word is part of what student life is about.

Culture comes from the Latin cultura. In English, it originally referred to cultivated land.

Trend Watch tracks popular lookups to see what people are talking about. You can always see all Trend Watch articles here.