The Words of the Week - Jan. 27

’Brigade’

The word brigade found itself paired with an unlikely second word recently (newt), after The New York Times published an article about a group of volunteers who help shepherd these amphibians across highways.

For the past four years, volunteers have spent their winter nights shepherding newts across a one-mile stretch of Chileno Valley Road, a winding country road in the hills of Petaluma. They call themselves the Chileno Valley Newt Brigade, and their founder, Sally Gale, says they will keep showing up until the newts no longer need them.
— Annie Roth, The New York Times, 24 Jan. 2023

Brigade came into English with the meaning of “a large body of troops,” and has other military meanings, such as “a tactical and administrative unit composed of a headquarters, one or more units of infantry or armor, and supporting units.” It also, however, may refer to “a group of people organized for special activity,” such as the special activity of moving newts across a road. Brigade shares a root with the word brigand: both come from the Italian brigare, meaning “to fight.”

’Plagiarism’

Computer-generated writing continued to be very much in the news this last week, and one of the words that showed up often in writing on this subject was plagiarism.

David Levene, who is a professor of Classics and the Chair of the Department of Classics at NYU, told Motherboard that he is keeping a close watch for any ChatGPT-related plagiarism.
— Chloe Xiang, Vice, 26 Jan. 2023

CNET's AI Journalist Appears to Have Committed Extensive Plagiarism
— (headline) Futurism, 23 Jan. 2023

To plagiarize something is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source,” and plagiarism is an act of this. Plagiarism comes from the Latin plagiarius, a word that literally means “kidnapper.”

’Imminent’

Imminent spiked in lookups last week, after a district attorney in Georgia indicated that this adjective described the time frame in which her office would start indicting people for attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election.

The Atlanta-area district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election indicated on Tuesday that decisions on whether to seek the indictment of the former president or his associates were “imminent.”
— Kyle Cheney, Politico, 24 Jan. 2023

We define imminent as “ready to take place : happening soon.” The word is often used of something bad or dangerous seen as menacingly near. Imminent is occasionally confused with the similar-sounding word eminent; while these words come from the same root (the Latin imminēre, "to rise up, project”) they are distinct in meaning (eminent most often is used with the meaning “successful, well-known and respected.”

’Fraudulent’

The ongoing contretemps surrounding newly-elected congressman George Santos continued to draw considerable attention, and one word seen often in proximity to his name was fraudulent

George Santos Fraudulent Signature Could Be Final Nail in Coffin
— (headline) Newsweek, 26 Jan. 2023

Fraudulent is “characterized by, based on, or done by fraud; deceitful,” and fraud is “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.” There are many different types of deceit, and so we have a handy guide to some of the more common ones, in order that you might be able to distinguish between them.

Deception: may or may not imply blameworthiness, since it may suggest cheating or merely tactical resource.

Fraud: always implies guilt and often criminality in act or practice.

Double-dealing: suggests treachery or at least action contrary to a professed attitude.

Subterfuge suggests the adoption of a stratagem or the telling of a lie in order to escape guilt or to gain an end.

Trickery: implies ingenious acts intended to dupe or cheat.

Imposture: applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine.

Sham: applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action.

Fake: implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty.

Humbug: suggests elaborate pretense usually so flagrant as to be transparent.

Counterfeit: applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable.

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Anonymuncule’

Our word worth knowing this week is anonymuncule, defined as “an insignificant anonymous writer.” It may come as a surprise to some that use of this word predates the existence of the Internet (the ideal habitat for such creatures) by many years; anonymuncule has been found in English since the middle of the 19th century.