Today’s Wordbird: CONTAMINOTION

CONTAMINOTION (N.) kun-tam-i-‘no-shun A spurious, wrong-headed idea that poisons public discourse, spreading like a virus. Usage: In every age, hotheads have spouted false or wicked ideas—like denying the Earth is round, opposing female suffrage, insisting the president’s birth certificate is fake, or declaring that Americans don’t need Medicare and Social Security. In the past, such contaminotions didn’t always catch on; but in the internet age, they spread quickly and virally.

Today's Wordbird: CONTAMINOTION

Red-tailed Hawk, by Elizabeth Zechel

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Tags: internet age, Medicare, President

Liesl Schillinger is a New York-based writer and translator, whose criticism, essay, features and other work have appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Gourmet Live, The New Yorker, New Yor ...read more