Trending: ‘ineptitude’

Lookups spiked 21,000% on October 7, 2020

Why are people looking up ineptitude?

Ineptitude cast off its humble beginnings and rose to among our top lookups during the vice-presidential debate, after Kamala Harris used the word in reference to the Trump administration.

Kamala Harris using these words to describe the Trump administration's response to COVID-19: "ineptitude" and "incompetence."
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 8, 2020

What does ineptitude mean?

Ineptitude is defined as “the quality or state of being inept,” and especially is used to mean “incompetence.” Inept is defined as “bungling,” “unfit,” or “not suitable to the time, place, or occasion; inappropriate often to an absurd degree.” The word has been in English use since the beginning of the 17th century.

Citations

Besides this inward ineptitude and resistance, neuer had any building (except Babels towers, which had Gods owne hand from heauen against them) such outward opposites against it, as this hath.
— Thomas Taylor, A commentarie vpon the Epistle of S. Paul written to Titus, 1612

Trend Watch is a data-driven report on words people are looking up at much higher search rates than normal. While most trends can be traced back to the news or popular culture, our focus is on the lookup data rather than the events themselves.