Merriam-Webster is at it again and we can’t get enough.
The famous dictionary’s Twitter page sent out the below tweet containing an article that spells out the history of the world “blackmail” after reports from The Washington Post that President Donald Trump shared highly classified information about a U.S. plan against the Islamic State with Russian foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US Sergey I. Kislyak earlier this month.
The 'mail' means "payment" or "rent." https://t.co/t1N4MtxTT8
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 15, 2017
The Merriam-Webster article noted that “the original meaning of ‘blackmail’ was a ‘tribute anciently exacted on the Scottish border by plundering chiefs in exchange for immunity from pillage,’ a sense that it retained as its primary meaning for over two hundred years.”
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Fast-forward a couple of centuries and the word is now also used as a verb “with the more nuanced meaning of ‘to extort money or anything of value from (a person) by threats especially of subjecting the person to criminal prosecution or revealing information that could damage the person’s reputation.’”
Or, you know, with bombs.
Monday's tweet is just the latest trolling from Merriam-Webster, who have been not-so-subtly been calling out the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration.
The tweets seem to be paying off for the company, as well. CNN pointed out that since Jan. 20, “the dictionary’s official Twitter handle has doubled its audience.” Currently, the account has over 465k followers.
Let’s take a look back at some of the dictionary’s best Trump trolls:
Last week, Trump claimed that he coined the phrase, “priming the pump,” and Merriam-Webster wasted no time in responding.
'Pump priming' has been used to refer to government investment expenditures since at least 1933. https://t.co/VfkGwwzZRC
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 11, 2017
On that same day, the account also called out The Donald for tweeting that “Russia must be laughing up their sleeves” at the US.
Yeah, we enter it. https://t.co/3vvrAEFBHu
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 11, 2017
Oh, and we can’t forget that Kellyanne Conway claimed the administration wasn’t lying; they were simply sharing “alternative facts.” As you may remember, the Merriam-Webster social team found the perfect opportunity to strike back.
*whispers into the void* In contemporary use, fact is understood to refer to something with actual existence. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 24, 2017
Stay snarky, Merriam-Webster.