Originally posted by Wikinews. Wikinews content appears under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license except where specified. As these articles are static snapshots of news items that may be later updated, they may not represent the latest or final revision of that article, and posted information may be only preliminary. Santorum neologism spreads to Romney ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 14, 2012 Original URL: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Santorum_neologism_spreads_to_Romney A new website Spreading Romney.com now appears prominently among Internet search results for Mitt Romney's last name and defines ''romney'' as: "to defecate in terror". ''Spreading Romney'' was inspired by the santorum neologism coined in advice columnist Dan Savage's column ''Savage Love'' in response to comments made by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum about homosexuality; Savage's readers voted to define ''santorum'' as: "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex." While defining ''romney'' as a verb, the word "terror" in the definition given at Spreading Romney.com links to an article that appeared January 5 in ''The Huffington Post'' titled "Mitt Romney's Dog Incident Comes Back To Haunt Him". The article describes a 1983 incident where Romney was reported to have affixed his family’s pet Irish setter named Seamus to the roof of their vehicle for 12 hours while on a car trip to Canada; press coverage of the matter recounted how the animal let loose its bowels due to a fear response during the experience. Similar to online searches leading to the santorum neologism website originally created by Dan Savage, Spreading Santorum.com, queries for Romney yielding top search results for Spreading Romney.com are not limited only to Google but extend to other search engines including Bing as well. ''MSNBC'' quoted search engine expert Danny Sullivan, who observed that the website had likely risen of late in search results: "I don’t recall seeing it recently, so it appears to be a new gain." ''The Atlantic'' reported that as of yesterday, Spreading Romney.com had received 3,416 like button clicks from Facebook and 1,261 posts on Twitter. The site appeared third in a Google search for Romney, directly below the former Massachusetts Governor's Wikipedia page. In a 2003 interview with the Associated Press, Rick Santorum compared legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States to supporting bestiality. Readers of the ''Savage Love'' advice column selected a new definition for the Senator’s last name, and Savage created a website Spreading Santorum.com to promulgate the spread of the phenomenon. The term became a prominent result in searches online, and gained dominance on Web search engines including Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. Rick Santorum himself has acknowledged and discussed the existence and prevalence of the santorum neologism phenomenon; he was quoted by ''The Canadian Press'' on his assessment of Google's response: "To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can't handle. I suspect that's not true." Santorum criticized the response of the press to the phenomenon in a 2011 radio interview, saying, "It's offensive beyond, you know, anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it." The company Go Daddy manages the domain name for the website Spreading Romney.com; the site was registered by an Indianapolis, Indiana-based company named Ayokay LLC which was formed on January 1. The website reportedly started operating on January 10. Rachel Maddow commented upon it on January 12 on her program ''The Rachel Maddow Show''. The founder of Spreading Romney.com, Jack Shepler, informed Sullivan that he holds no ties to any political campaign group and formed the website out of a comedic motivation. ''New York Magazine'' noted that there may be another neologism this time derived from the last name of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich; linking to an established website for Spreading Gingrich.com. That site is currently asking visitors to submit suggestions for a new definition of ''gingrich''. ==Related news== * Santorum neologism gains prominence during US election cycle * Wikinews investigates Wikipedia usage by U.S. Senate staff members == Sister links == == Sources == * http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/romney-means-to-defecate-in-terror.html * http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/13/10398017-romney-means-defecate-candidate-facing-a-santorum-search-problem * http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/13/mitt-romney-faces-a-santorum-like-problem-on-google-and-bing/ * http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/02/santorum-romney-now-has-google-problem/48624/ ==External links== * http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/mitt-romneys-dog-incident_n_1187114.html *[http://spreadingromney.com/ Spreading Romney], website dedicated to redefining Mitt Romney's last name *[http://spreadingsantorum.com/ Spreading Santorum], website created to promulgate redefinition of Rick Santorum's last name *[http://spreadinggingrich.com/ Spreading Gingrich], website soliciting suggestions for new definition of Newt Gingrich's last name .