"Bailout": Buzzword of the Year

Bailout – "a rescue from financial distress" – was declared the winner of Merriam-Webster's word-of-the-year competition after it was judged the most looked-up word on the dictionary's website, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski said.

"Bail out as a phrasal verb refers to parachuting from an aircraft or, in our second sense, to abandoning a harmful or difficult situation, both of which point to distress," said Sokolowski.

Second on the list was "vet", as in to evaluate a candidate's suitability and qualifications for a position.

And in third place, just in front of "maverick" – a word used during the long presidential campaign to describe Republican candidate John McCain – was the word "socialism".

"In America, 'socialism' is a dirty word," said Sokolowski.

People who looked up "maverick" would have learned that it has its origins in American pioneer Samuel Maverick, who did not brand his calves.

The word later evolved from meaning an unbranded range animal to be redefined to mean a nonconformist, one who goes against the crowd.

Who knew, I mean, about the cattle thing? I know I didn't! Of course, the evolution of the word 'maverick' is an odd one, since the animals themselves didn't initially rebel against being branded.