hegemony

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 15, 2024 is: hegemony \hih-JEM-uh-nee\ noun Hegemony refers to influence or control over another country, group of people, etc. // The two nations have for centuries struggled for regional hegemony. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemony) Examples: “Beyond Hollywood’s scrambled economics, one of the biggest threats to its hegemony is social media—TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X-formerly-known-as-Twitter—with which it has always had an uncomfortable relationship, alternately its victim or master.” — Peter Biskind, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Hegemony refers to a kind of domination. It was borrowed in the mid-16th century from the Greek word hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai, “to lead.” At first hegemony was used specifically to refer to the control once wielded by ancient Greek states; later it was applied to domination by other political actors. By the 19th century, the word had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant entity over others of its kind, a sense employed by design scholar Joshua Langman when describing the use of [found objects](https://bit.ly/4bCWEMs) by French artist [Marcel Duchamp](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Duchamp) (he of notorious [readymade](https://bit.ly/3wgcvQS) Fountain fame) as a means “to question and criticize the values of the artistic hegemony by [eschewing](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschew) craft entirely.”