The Words of the Week - Dec. 30

’Kwanzaa’

Kwanzaa trended last week, as it does every year in the week between Christmas and the beginning of January.

Unlike many other winter holidays, Kwanzaa isn't tied to any single religion. It is meant to include people of all religions, so if you observe Christmas or Hanukkah you can also celebrate Kwanzaa.
— -CBS News_, 26 Dec. 2022

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.” Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

’Chaos’

Chaos erupted in the world of aviation last week, after Southwest Airlines experienced a great deal of this word (due to organizational mishaps), and caused the travel plans of thousands of people to go seriously awry.

Southwest says it will resume normal flights Friday after travel chaos
— (headline) BBC News, 29 Dec. 2022

The sense of chaos most relevant to Southwest’s recent troubles is “a state of utter confusion,” although the word has a number of other, related meanings (among them the poetic “inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system, such as the atmosphere, boiling water, or the beating heart”).

Chaos was borrowed from the Greek word that means "abyss." In ancient Greece, Chaos was originally thought of as the abyss or emptiness that existed before things came into being, and then this word was used to refer to a specific abyss: the abyss of Tartarus, the underworld. When the word chaos first came into English in the 1400s, this sense was the one that was first attested to. Later, in the 1600s, chaos gained its more familiar sense, the one relating to utter confusion or disorganization.

’Icon’

The passing of soccer legend Pele caused considerable interest in the word icon.

Pele: Football pays respects to one of its icons after his death
— (headline) HGoal.com, 29 Dec. 2022

An icon in the sense employed above is “a person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere.” The word has a number of additional meanings, relating to subjects such as computing (“a graphic symbol on a computer display screen that represents an app, an object (such as a file), or a function, such as the command to save”) and religion (“a representation (as in a mural, a mosaic, or a painting on wood) of sacred events or especially of a sacred individual (such as Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint) used as an object of veneration or a tool for instruction”). Icon tends to increase in lookups following the death of notable people; in recent years it has spiked following the deaths of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Prince, David Bowie, and John Lewis.

’Embellish’ & ‘Nit-pick’

Embellish and nit-pick both spiked in lookups last week, after a man recently elected to Congress claimed people were doing the latter, after he admitted having done the former in his campaign.

Incoming Republican Congressman George Santos Admits to “Embellishing” his Resume.
— (headline) Vanity Fair, 27 Dec. 2022

George Santos defends lies in scathing Fox News interview: ‘Everybody wants to nitpick’
— (headline) Gothamist, 28 Dec. 2022

Embellish means “to make beautiful with ornamentation” or “to heighten the attractiveness of by adding decorative or fanciful details.” The word comes in part from the French word for "beautiful," bel, which is fitting, as it often is used with the meaning beautifying something through the addition of non-essential elements. When embellish is used to modify a word such as story or tale, it suggests the addition of exaggeration or fanciful enhancements.

Nit-pick means “to engage in minute and usually unjustified criticism.” The initial portion of this word, nit has the literal meaning of “the egg of a louse or other parasitic insect” and the figurative one of “a minor shortcoming.” When one is nit-picking (or picking nits) it generally is with the figurative sense of nits in mind.

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Debacchate’

Our word worth knowing this week is debacchate, which we defined in a 1907 dictionary as “to rave as a bacchanal” (a bacchanal is “one who indulges in drunken revels”). Henry Cockeram had a slightly more brusque definition of this word in his 1623 dictionary: “to revile one after the manner of drunkards.” Seeing as many of those reading this will soon be attending New Year’s Eve parties we’d like to remind you that no one will be happy to see you reviling the other guests; we hope you all have a lovely time, but try to not debacchate anyone this year.