Oxford English Dictionary apologizes for ‘bloodbath’ as word of the day
View of the Oxford American College dictionary. The dictionary voted “GIF” as its word of the year.
The Oxford English Dictionary has apologizes for today's word of the day: "bloodbath."
The OED issued a statement on its website saying the "word of the day is selected months in advance by an editorial committee, and is distributed automatically each day."
It apologized after a number of people complained about the poor timing in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings ,which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults. Gunman Adam Lanza then committed suicide after the killing massacre in Newtown, Conn.
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"The timing of today’s word is a coincidence of the worst kind, and we apologize for any distress or upset caused by what might seem to be a highly insensitive choice," read the statement. "What we hope to show with our words of the day is that even seemingly commonplace words can have interesting etymologies; however we have taken today’s word down from the OED Online homepage and are now taking immediate steps to review our scheduling and selection policy."
As the Huffington Post noted, the OED defines "bloodbath" as "a battle or fight at which much blood is spilt; a wholesale slaughter, a massacre."