The Words of the Week - Apr. 19

‘Voir dire’

The first ever criminal trial of a former United States president began last week, and a number of words spiked in lookups as a result, among them voir dire.

Trump Voir Dire Aims To Keep Ballot Box Out Of The Jury Box
— Law360, 12 Apr. 2024

Voir dire is “a preliminary examination to determine the competency of a witness or juror,” especially the act or process of questioning prospective jurors to determine which are qualified (as by freedom from bias) and suited for service on a jury. The term comes directly from Anglo-French, in which it has the literal meaning of “to speak the truth.” Voir dire may also function as a verb, in which case it means “to examine in a voir dire proceeding.”

‘Admonish’

Admonish also spiked in lookups as a result of the trial, after the judge was said to have done this to Trump.

That process prompted Judge Juan Merchan to sternly admonish Trump for his conduct toward the first juror questioned about her social media.
— Jeremy Herb and Lauren del Valle, CNN, 17 Apr. 2024

Admonish can be traced back to the Latin word monēre, meaning ”to warn,” and much like warn it has a number of similar but distinct meanings. The one most applicable above is “to say (something) as advice or a warning.” However, admonish can also mean “to give friendly earnest advice or encouragement to” (“I admonished him to be careful on his bicycle”) or “to express warning or disapproval to, especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner.”

‘Impressionism’

Impressionism was higher in lookups than usual, a result of the 150th anniversary of the first known exhibition of Impressionist paintings.

It might seem like gilding the lily to devote a two-part exhibition to a single historic event, and yet the result, “Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism,” is a revelation. In it, the Musée d’Orsay presents a show about a show—specifically, the first Impressionist exhibition, which opened 150 years ago today and ushered in what we think of as modern art.
— Eve Hill-Angus, ArtNews, 15 Apr. 2024

Impressionism is “a theory or practice in painting especially among French painters of about 1870 of depicting the natural appearances of objects by means of dabs or strokes of primary unmixed colors in order to simulate actual reflected light.” This sense is often capitalized, but the word has other senses (such as “a style of musical composition designed to create subtle moods and impressions”), in which cases it is not typically capitalized. And if you need (or just want) a fancy word for a 150th anniversary, the English language comes equipped with sesquicentennial, which means precisely that.

‘Salary’

Salary spiked in lookups as well, following numerous news stories on how small of one future WNBA player Caitlin Clark would be receiving, relative to her counterparts in the NBA.

Caitlin Clark, a college basketball phenom and the top pick at Monday’s WNBA draft, will make a staggeringly low salary in her rookie year compared to her NBA counterpart.
— Li Zhou, Vox.com, 16 Apr. 2024

Salary has a pleasingly direct and simple definition: “fixed compensation paid regularly for services.” The word comes from the Latin salārium (“official pay given to the holder of a civil or military post”), and one occasionally finds the claim that salārium originally referred to money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt. While it is true that salt is part of the etymology of salary (salārium comes from sāl, “salt”), there is little to establish with certainty that salt, or funds for salt, were an integral part of the history of Roman soldiers. Pliny the Elder has been cited as support for the soldier's pay explanation, though the text of his Historia naturalis refers only to some undefined role salt played in relation to honors in war, “from which the word salārium is derived.” This serves as our periodic reminder that most of the etymological information you’ve managed to remember because it is interesting is also likely to be apocryphal.

Words Worth Watching: ‘Agathokakological’

Our word worth knowing this week is agathokakological, defined as “composed of both good and evil.” This is a mouthful of a word, containing 8 syllables and bristling with awkward letters, but we are offering it to readers because it is so useful in so many settings. You needn’t say it out loud if you don’t feel like doing so; sometimes it’s enough to just shake your head and silently say to yourself ‘yep, that’s agathokakological, all right.’