The Words of the Week - Apr. 5

‘Blasphemous’

Blasphemous had a spike in lookups last week, after a number of commentators and politicians opined that the coincidence of Transgender Day of Visibility with a religious holiday was blasphemous.

In a statement Saturday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt claimed that declaring Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday was “blasphemous” and called on Biden “to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
— Amy B Wang, The Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2024

We define blasphemy in two religious senses (“the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God” and “the act of claiming the attributes of a deity”) and one non-religious one (“irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable”). Blasphemous can be used to mean “constituting blasphemy” or “impiously irreverent.” The word can be traced to the Greek blasphēmos (“evil-speaking”) and is of long standing; our records indicate that people have been blasphemous since the 15th century.

‘Effigy’

Effigy has trended a few times in the past several weeks, apparently because of likenesses of President Biden being met with harm.

Donald Trump shared video with image depicting an effigy of President Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck...
— MSNBC, 30 Mar. 2024

Two top Kansas Republican Party officials are facing internal calls to resign over a viral online video showing people at a fundraiser kicking and beating a mannequin wearing a mask of Joe Biden, underscoring the national GOP’s deep divisions and its struggles to win over voters outside Donald Trump’s base.
— John Hanna, AP News, 12 Mar. 2024

Effigy can have a broad meaning, such as “an image or representation especially of a person,” but the word is often encountered with the more specific sense of “a crude figure often in the form of a stuffed dummy that is tortured or disposed of (as by burning or hanging) to represent treatment felt to be due to a person who is the object of hatred.”

‘Mandamus’

Mandamus had a rare spike in lookups last week, after the prosecutors trying Donald Trump in one of his court cases indicated they might seek a writ of mandamus.

In the classified documents case, meanwhile, prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team ask Judge Aileen Cannon to reverse herself on her proposed instructions to jurors in Trump’s as-yet-to-be-scheduled trial. If she does not, they tell Cannon that they could seek a “writ of mandamus” to force her to do so.
— David Knowles, Yahoo, 3 Apr. 2024

The legal definition of mandamus is “an extraordinary writ issued by a court of competent jurisdiction to an inferior tribunal, a public official, an administrative agency, a corporation, or any person compelling the performance of an act usually only when there is a duty under the law to perform the act, the plaintiff has a clear right to such performance, and there is no other adequate remedy available.” Mandamus comes from Latin, in which it means “we enjoin.”

‘Eclipse’

Readers will not be surprised to learn that eclipse has seen a recent uptick in lookups.

Millions of Americans are awaiting a rare solar eclipse on April 8—nearly the whole country will have a chance to look up and see at least a small portion of the moon clip the sun. But people who made plans to visit the narrow path of totality for the best show are confronting some fickle cloud forecasts that may put a damper on their plans.
— Elizabeth Weise, Kayla Jiminez, and Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 3 Apr. 2024

Eclipse may be traced to the Greek word ekleípein, meaning “to leave out, abandon, cease, die, be obscured (of a celestial body).” The word has a small variety of meanings, both as a noun and a verb; the most relevant meaning of the former is “the total or partial obscuring of one celestial body by another.” Eclipse may also carry such meanings as “a falling into obscurity or decline,” “to reduce in importance or repute,” and “to surpass.”

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Empleomania’

This week’s word worth knowing is empleomania, defined as “a mania for holding public office.” This word is presented solely for purposes of education and/or amusement, and should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any political figure.

This jewel of prime ministers is the living impersonation and type of the prevailing Spanish vice of empleomania, or rage for office.
— The Morning Chronicle, (London, Eng.), 18 Oct. 1845