The Definitive Top 10 List

Merriam-Webster has published its list of 2005's words of the year, based on online lookups, providing a telling look at what concepts are occupying our collective minds (or confusing them anyway).

What's the number one item confounding us?

integrity

Pronunciation: in-'te-gr&-tE
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English integrite, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French integrité, from Latin integritat-, integritas, from integr-, integer entire
1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY
2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS
synonym see HONESTY

Frankly, the rest of the top ten list doesn't paint a much brighter picture of what was on our minds this year:

1. integrity
2. refugee
3. contempt
4. filibuster
5. insipid
6. tsunami
7. pandemic
8. conclave
9. levee
10. inept

Then again, the previous lists have their share of pestilence and malaise as well.

2004
1. blog
2. incumbent
3. electoral
4. insurgent
5. hurricane
6. cicada
7. peloton
8. partisan
9. sovereignty
10. defenestration

2003
1. democracy
2. quagmire
3. quarantine
4. matrix
5. marriage
6. slog
7. gubernatorial
8. plagiarism
9. outage
10. batten

These are definitely illuminating lists.  But I'd really like to see their historical counterparts from, say, the 1920's.

While lacking the accuracy of tracking online queries, through careful research and examination of patterns of page wear-and-tear and the locations of thumbprint smudges in hundreds of antique dictionaries, I've compiled the following approximation:

1920-1929
1. suffrage
2. flappers
3. charleston
4. cat's pajamas
5. talkies
6. speakeasy
7. jazzbo
8. houdini
9. hooch
10. black tuesday