An Apology for the Oxford English Dictionary’s Ill-Timed Word of the Day
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has apologized for what it called “a coincidence of the worst kind” after the dictionary’s Web site named “bloodbath” as its word of the day on Tuesday, after last week’s deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn.
The Guardian reported that a word-of-the-day entry that ran on the OED.com site, defining bloodbath as “a battle or fight at which much blood is spilt; a wholesale slaughter, a massacre,” drew rapid criticism from readers on Twitter, who called it “tasteless and gross” and said it was “in very, very poor taste in light of recent events.”
The post at OED.com said that “we apologize for any distress and upset caused by what might seem to be a highly insensitive choice” and explained that the word of the day is “selected months in advance by an editorial committee, and is distributed automatically each day.”