The Words of the Week - Dec. 29

‘Kwanzaa’

Kwanzaa spiked in lookups last week, as it does every year during the last week of December; the seven days of its celebration begin on the 26th of that month.

More than 120 people from across the Space Coast attended a community gathering on the first night of Kwanzaa, celebrating culture through ceremony, reflections, dance and music.
— J.D. Gallop, Florida Today, 28 Dec. 2023

We define Kwanzaa as “an African American cultural festival held from December 26 to January 1.” The holiday was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a Black Studies professor at California State University at Long Beach. Karenga patterned Kwanzaa after traditional African harvest festivals, and took its name from a Swahili term that means “first fruits”: kwanza. Among the initial celebrants of the holiday were seven children, and so an A was added to allow each child to have their own letter. Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

‘Backlash’

The answer given by a presidential aspirant to a question about the cause of the Civil War, and the response engendered by this answer, caused lookups for backlash to increase.

Nikki Haley acknowledges Civil War ‘about slavery’ after facing backlash
— (headline) The Washington Post, 28 Dec. 2023

Backlash, in modern use, may be defined as “a strong adverse reaction (as to a recent political or social development).” The word came into use at the beginning of the 19th century, and initially was mainly used in technical settings, with meanings such as “a sudden violent backward movement or reaction” and “the play between adjacent movable parts (as in a series of gears).”

These circumstances … will evince, that complex, extensive, and cumbrous accelerating wheel machinery, with its indispensable concomitants of massy framed work, and the certainty of back-lash, at least, in the commencement of motion, may readily, conveniently, and usefully be dispensed with.
— The Portico, a Repository of Science and Literature, 1 Jan. 1818

‘Inflation’

Inflation also featured prominently in many news stories last week, amid reports that it was decreasing.

Inflation is nearly back to normal. But high prices have changed Americans’ lives
— (headline) CNN, 27 Dec. 2023

The relevant sense of inflation here is “a continuing rise in the general price level usually attributed to an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services.” The word’s initial meaning, one that is still very much in use, was “an act of inflating or a state of being inflated.” Inflation may be traced in part to the Latin flare (meaning “to blow”), a root it shares with a number of other English words, including flatulent.

‘Endangered Species Act’

Endangered Species Act was very much in use last week, following the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the law so named.

President Richard M. Nixon enshrined the Endangered Species Act into the nation’s history 50 years ago on Thursday.
— Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 28 Dec. 2023

The entry in our legal dictionary states that this is “an act that obligated the government to protect all animal and plant life threatened with extinction, including in this category 'endangered' species, defined as any species 'which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range,' and 'threatened' species, defined as any species 'which is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.' It also provided for the drawing up of lists of such species and promoted the protection of critical habitats (areas designated as critical to the conservation of a species).”

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Quinquagenary’

Quinquagenary did not spike in lookups last week, although it might have, considering how many journalists were writing about the Endangered Species Act; quinquagenary means “a fiftieth anniversary.” It should not be confused with quinquagenarian, which is “a person who is fifty years old,” or “characteristic of a person of such an age.”