While there was no shortage of fact checkers poring over every statement made by Republican Party candidate Donald Trump in last night’s first US presidential debate, arguably the archest criticism came from an unlikely corner – the dictionary.
The Twitter account of Merriam-Webster, one of the leading publishers of reference books in the US, is usually dedicated to defining rare and obscure words of the day, but last night weighed in on politics, correcting the misused language and poorly chosen words by the billionaire property developer over the 90-minute debate.
With Trump already known for his jumbled delivery and tangential points, Merriam-Webster responded to American viewers’ questions about his lexical choices, both throughout the debate and in previous speeches. They pointed out that when the candidate said “braggadocious” he meant braggadocio, but conceded that “bigly” does exist... just not in the sense that Trump used it.
He was trying for braggadocio. #debatenight #debates https://t.co/kX2W3xEROR https://t.co/11JTCLer3w
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 27, 2016
This is the definition of stop and frisk, found unconstitutional. https://t.co/X97FuKpD33
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 27, 2016
Bigly *is* a word, though that's not what Trump said. https://t.co/FpjrcMss3g
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 27, 2016
We don't enter it. https://t.co/3zq42c4XGg
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 27, 2016
In the final wrap-up speeches made by the candidates, Merriam-Webster did finally turn its attention to something said by Hillary Clinton. And if it wasn’t already clear that the company has endorsed her, the tweet underlined it:
"Words matter" #debates
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 27, 2016
