the buzz log

At a time when technology keeps shortening words to four letters or fewer, are dictionaries still meaningful? You betcha. Even when school's out (for most), searches for dictionaries are up 14% compared to this same period last year. Throw in foreign language look-ups, and the need to know goes up 18%.

Besides vocabulary, searches for medical dictionaries rose 63% compared to last year. And we thought "cyberchondria" was so last year. (No, that word isn't part of Merriam-Webster's new batch. Yet.) The Urban Dictionary remains the second most consulted specialty dictionary, but WDR, the lingo to know is text messaging, a newby search this summer. Wordsmiths also boosted Scrabble's dictionary, possibly thanks to a fabulous Facebook application... although look for a war of words with the official version launched Monday.

Among international languages, Spanish is still numero segundo (after English), despite its 10 percent drop in searches compared to last summer. Farsi (spoken in Afghanistan and Iran) has become the fastest rising newcomer among languages. More people are also trying their tongues in Hebrew, Russian, Hawaiian, and Tagalog than last year. Fo' real, bruddah.