An Apology for the Oxford English Dictionary\'s Ill-Timed Word of the Day

Oli Scarff/Getty Images Oxford University

Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has apologized for what it called “a coincidence of the worst kind” after the dictionary's Web site named “bloodbath” as its word of the day on Tuesday, after last week's deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn.

The Guardian reported that a word of the day entry that ran on the OED.com site, defining bloodbath as “a battle or fight at which much blood is spilt; a wholesale slaughter, a massacre,” drew rapid criticism from readers on Twitter, who called it “Tasteless and gross” and said it was “in very , very poor taste in light of recent events.”

The post at OED.com said that “we apologize for any distress and upset caused by what might seem to be a highly insensitive choice” and that the word of the day is “selected months in advance by an editorial committee, and is distributed automatically each day.”

The post said that the timing of the word was “a coincidence of the worst kind.” It added: “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.”