Oxford Is Rethinking Its Use of the Term "Rabid Feminism"

The term "rabid" has two definitions in the Oxford Dictionary: "Having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something" and "(Of an animal) affected with rabies." The example they give for the first definition is "a rabid feminist." Not the most flattering term to pair with feminism. 

Anthropologist Michael Oman-Reagan explained in a blog post on Medium.com that this is particularly problematic because, "This is default dictionary on Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Anyone using a Mac, an iPad, or iPhone will get definitions from this dictionary."

Oman-Reagan called out Oxford for this choice on Twitter last week:

Oxford then got a little snarky in response:

But then backtracked, saying that they'll review their use of the phrase.

A spokesperson then clarified to The Daily Dot saying, "We apologize for the offense that these comments caused. The example sentences we use are taken from a huge variety of different sources and do not represent the views or opinions of Oxford University Press. That said, we are now reviewing the example sentence for 'rabid' to ensure that it reflects current usage."

Follow Marie Claire on Instagram for the latest celeb news, pretty pics, funny stuff, and an insider POV.