Trending: ‘Sardoodledom’

Lookups spiked 25,000% the week of January 3, 2022

Why are people looking up Sardoodledom?

Sardoodledom trended in lookups throughout the last week of 2021, as well as the first of 2022, after a memorable moment from the Scripps National Spelling Bee resurfaced online.

A now-historic clip of 11-year-old Kennyi Aouad having a giggling fit during a national spelling bee in 2007 is doing the rounds on social media, winning hearts and minds just like it did the first dozen times. So, what is the meaning of the word “sardoodledom”, and where is “spelling bee kid” now?
– Bruno Cooke, The Focus, 3 Jan. 2022

What does Sardoodledom mean?

We define sardoodledom as “mechanically contrived plot structure and stereotyped or unrealistic characterization in drama.” The word is of relatively recent origin: it appears to have been coined by George Bernard Shaw at the end of the 19th century. The sardoodle- portion of the word taken from the name of a French playwright criticized by Shaw for the staginess of his works (Victorien Sardou), while the latter portion is a combination of doodle and the noun suffix -dom (“those having a (specified) office, occupation, interest, or character”).

Citations

Any man that is above Sardoodledom has no business at a Kramer play. When Kramer pulls the wires you are supposed to be of the submerged—else get out.
— Ashton Stevens, The San Francisco Examiner, 8 Aug. 1905

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.