The Words of the Week - Nov. 28
Dictionary lookups from music, geography, and turkey
‘Reggae’
The death of reggae legend Jimmy Cliff led to a rise in lookups for the word reggae.
Born James Chambers, Jimmy Cliff was a star of stage and screen, as well known for his role in the revolutionary cult film The Harder They Come as for his export of ska and reggae music across the Atlantic and back to North America.
—Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 24 Nov. 2025
We define reggae as “popular music of Jamaican origin that combines native styles with elements of rock and soul music and is performed at moderate tempos with the accent on the offbeat.” Reggae originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and quickly emerged as the country’s dominant music. By the 1970s it had become an international style that was particularly popular in Britain, the United States, and Africa. Widely perceived as a voice of the oppressed, it produced such global icons as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff. The origins of the word reggae have been theorized and debated, but are ultimately unknown.
‘Tryptophan’
Thanksgiving week saw a rise in lookups for tryptophan.
“What’s in the turkey? What makes people sleepy?” [UConn coach, Dan] Hurley asked, looking for the name of the amino acid, tryptophan. “We’re not going to eat the (bleeping) tryptophan on Thursday and be sluggish as (bleep) on Friday. So we’re gonna eat the tryptophan, the turkey and everything on Wednesday so that all of the tryptophan is out of our system by the time we get to MSG.”
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Tryptophan (less commonly spelled tryptophane) refers to a crystalline essential amino acid that is widely distributed in proteins. An essential amino acid is one that humans and certain other animals cannot synthesize and must obtain from their diets. In a bit of (bleeping) good news for Coach Hurley and the Huskies, the tryptophan found in turkey is not responsible for drowsiness.
‘Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, Lake’
While our geographic entry for Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg has certainly proven popular in the past, its recent dominance as a top lookup may be thanks to a wiki for the popular gaming platform Roblox.
The August update also introduced a new mode. To enable it, the player must type the word “Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg” in the game chat …
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This lake, often noted as the longest place name in the U.S., formerly had the 49-letter spelling Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg listed as the headword. The headword was recently updated to the 45-letter spelling Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg to match what is often used locally, including in a sign posted near the lake. The longer spelling and the shorter Chaubunagungamaug are also used, and are listed as spelling variants.
‘Wicked’
The opening of the film Wicked: For Good sent more people than usual to the entry for the word wicked.
Sequel to ‘Wicked’ is wicked good
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We define several senses of the adjective wicked, including “of exceptional quality or degree” (as in “a wicked fastball”), “disgustingly unpleasant” (as in “a wicked odor”), and the familiar, “morally very bad, evil.” Wicked is also used—as reflected in the above headline—as an adverb meaning “very” or “extremely.” Wicked is an alteration of the Middle English word wicke, which may in term come from the Old English word wicca.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Struthious’
Struthious means “of or relating to the ostriches and related birds,” which means that—due to a myth about ostriches—it has sometimes been used figuratively to mean “ignoring something that needs attention.”
The ostrich (scientific name: Struthio camelis) has a reputation for burying its head in the sand, but ostriches don’t actually do this. The bird’s habit of lying down and flattening its neck and head against the ground to escape detection gave rise to the misconception.
Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped struthious from developing a figurative connotation that ties to the common idiom bury/have/hide one’s head in the sand. When you have your head in the sand, you ignore something unpleasant that needs attention, and thus struthious has come to describe such acts of willful ignorance:
In particular, the determination to ignore or deny genuine sources of influence may have further implications, for this struthious habit has continued to characterize both the scientific community and what is now referred to as the educated general public, with consequences for the design of curricula and the funding of research, among other things.
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