Dan Savage Wants To Turn 'Duggar' Into The New 'Santorum'

Dan Savage wants to do to Josh Duggar what he did to Rick Santorum: redefine the man's last name.

On Tuesday, the writer and LGBT advocate called on his Twitter followers to help coin the new term based on the "19 Kids And Counting" star who was investigated for allegedly sexually molesting five underage girls, including several of his sisters, when he was a teen.

Clearly "duggary" needs to be a word. Should it mean sexual hypocrisy? Fundy hypocrisy? Child molestation? #duggary

— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 26, 2015

(NOTE: The following contains some NSFW language)

Some replies harkened back to the definition of "santorum" Savage helped conceive in 2003 after then-Sen. Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican and future GOP presidential candidate known for making anti-gay comments: "a frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

@fakedansavage the frothy mix of sanctimony and sexual hypocrisy

— Hank Thompson (@Hank_Thompson) May 26, 2015

@fakedansavage duggary: a frothy mix of molestation, church and bad hairdos

— hüskermould (@huskermould) May 26, 2015

Other possible definitions included:

@fakedansavage #Duggary (n): an intensely hypocritical moral lecture. Example: a mega church leader preaching about humility.

— Nate Severance (@NateSeverance) May 27, 2015

However, a number of people protested that re-defining the family's name would also harm his victims:

@fakedansavage Why should his innocent sisters have to have their last name mean that? There are already words to describe his actions.

— Renée Laporte (@BeyondTheCrayon) May 27, 2015

@fakedansavage that seems like a terrible idea since that's also the last name of his victims?

— Muffin MacGuffin (@MuffMacGuff) May 27, 2015

On Wednesday Savage retweeted one that he liked:

@fakedansavage Covering up child abuse. Example: The Catholic Church leadership engaged in Duggary for decades.

— Josh Kelly (@jcoltkelly) May 26, 2015

Definitions for "duggar" had been spreading online even before Savage's suggestion. On Sunday, the word "duggary" was added to the crowdsourced Urban Dictionary, where it was defined as "the act of fondling young girls while they sleep. To be a duggar."

Urban Dictionary lists as examples: "He was arrested for two counts of duggary. They really should put sick duggars like this on the sex offender registry."

Shortly before Savage's tweet, Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist Mike Luckovich posted his own definition:

luckovich archive. http://www.ajc.com/gallery/news/opinion/best-luckovich-may-2015/gCSWH/

Posted by Mike Luckovich AJC on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Savage also returned his focus to Santorum, who on Wednesday declared that he would seek the 2016 GOP presidential nomination:

"Rick" (verb) "to remove with your tongue."

Welcome to the race, Rick Santorum.

— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 27, 2015

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.