Precipice VS Misunderstimate

On Tuesday, December 15th, President Obama misused the word precipice and the world blew up. Ok, not really, but by the way some people are reacting you might be forgiven for thinking that this mistake could mean the end of democracy as we know it. Discussing health care, President Obama claimed that “we are on the precipice of reform.”

Precipice, which is defined as:

1. a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
2. a situation with great peril: on the precipice of war

It’s probably not the word he was looking for (although there are those who think it exactly the right word). It’s possible that the bar is set too high for Obama. Especially when compared to President George W Bush who, on September 26th, 2001 accidentally coined the phrase “misunderestimate.” While it’s not exactly scientific to compare a real word with a made up one, a quick look at Google Insights might illustrate how easily some words cycle in and out of the internet lexicon:

Note: Google Insight measures the use of search terms, but the numbers are normalized and presented in a scale of 1-100. The above chart doesn’t represent absolute volume.

Considering it’s a made up word, “misunderestimate” has managed to worm its way into general usage. Particularly when used ironically, as in the case of this Associated Content piece about adult illiteracy, which was responsible for the jump in “misunderestimate” searches in January 2009.

“Precipice” peaked in May 2008 thanks to the release of the video game Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Other spikes in searches containing precipice can be contributed to phrases repeated in mainstream media such as “At the precipice, Pope welcomed by thousands” in May of this year and “”edge of a precipice”, used to describe the state of cancer stricken reality star Jane Goody in March. It should be noted that President Obama has used the word precipice before. In July of this year, he claimed the economy has “stepped away from the precipice.”

Although this statement might not be acurate, he did use the word correctly.