You know what it looks like⦠but what is it called?
TAKE THE QUIZTrending: βseditionβ
Lookups spiked 3,800% on September 14, 2020
Sedition was among our top lookups on September 14, 2020, after Michael Caputo, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, without evidence accused career scientists at the CDC organizing a "resistance unit" for "sedition" against President Trump, according to The New York Times:
The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus accused career government scientists on Sunday of βseditionβ in their handling of the pandemic and warned that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election.
Sedition is defined as "incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority" or "conduct tending to treason but without an overt act."
Sedition came to English from French, and ultimately from the Latin word meaning "civil discord," "faction," or, literally, "separation."
There have been U.S. laws known as "sedition acts" in the past, including the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Sedition Act of 1918, both of which made it criminal to use speech to incite resistance against the government or its decisions.
Trend Watch is a data-driven report on words people are looking up at much higher search rates than normal. While most trends can be traced back to the news or popular culture, our focus is on the lookup data rather than the events themselves.
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