After President Trump’s tweet describing former FBI director James Comey as a “slimeball,” Merriam-Webster dictionary says searches for the word are up by 60,000 percent.
The president called Comey a “proven LEAKER & LIAR” in a series of tweets improperly strung together on Friday morning.
“He lied to Congress under OATH,” Trump tweeted. “He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI.”
James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018
….untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018
Comey’s tell-all memoir won’t be on shelves until next week, but in excerpts published online, the former FBI director described Trump as “sitting on a throne” and compared him to a mob boss.
And as his tweets show, Trump didn’t take it well.
According to a post from Merriam-Webster, searches for “slimeball” were up 60,000 percent since the president’s disparaging remarks about Comey.
“We define it as ‘a morally repulsive or odious person,” the dictionary tweeted.
📈’Slimeball’ is spiking after the President’s statement against James Comey. We define it as “a morally repulsive or odious person.”https://t.co/XDSx8y13xF
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) April 13, 2018
Merriam-Webster’s report points out that although both “slime” and “ball” have been part of the English language for thousands of years, the two words didn’t become a combined phrase until 1972 when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteused “slimeball” in reference to pushing someone down a fire escape.
“Although Trump rendered the word as an open compound (slime ball) in his tweet,” the report cheekily stated, “the traditional form is as a closed compound (slimeball).”
Since Trump’s win during the 2016 presidential election, Merriam-Webster has has become somewhat of a a social media fact checker. With actions like highlighting “feminism” as its 2017 word of the year and subtweeting the president, the dictionary has been quietly protesting the Trump administration.
