The Words of the Week - June 16

‘Orca’

Orcas have been in the news a good deal lately, following repeated cases of them damaging ships.

Scientists and sailors say orcas, also known as killer whales, are stepping up “attacks” on yachts along Europe's Iberian coast, with one skipper who’s been pursued by the marine mammals on two separate occasions suggesting that their tactics are becoming more stealthy.
— Scott Neuman, NPR, 13 June 2023

The orca, also known as a killer whale is “a relatively small toothed whale (Orcinus orca of the family Delphinidae) that is black above with white underparts and white oval-shaped patches behind the eyes, attains a length of 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters), typically hunts in groups, and preys chiefly on sea mammals (such as seals, sea lions, and other whales), large fish, and squid.” The word comes to English from Latin, but can be traced back further to the Greek óryx, meaning “kind of marine mammal.” The plural, if you happen to be in the company of multiple such creatures, may be either orcas or orca.

‘Juneteenth’

Juneteenth spiked in lookups, as it does in the week prior to June 19th every year.

United States President Joe Biden has hosted a concert on the South Lawn of the White House to commemorate Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday, which the president said will “breathe a new life in the very essence of America”.
— Al Jazeera, 14 June 2023

Juneteenth is observed on June 19th as a legal holiday in the United States in commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. It is worth noting that the federal name for this holiday according to the United States Code is Juneteenth National Independence Day. Juneteenth is also called Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Juneteenth Independence Day.

While Juneteenth was only recognized as a federal holiday in recent years, it has been celebrated for well over a century; we have published evidence of Juneteenth used to refer to June 19th celebrations as far back as the 19th century.

Last Wednesday the citizens of this city and vicinity, native Texans, assembled in the fair grounds to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the liberation of the bonded Afro-American of Texas. … Closely following the speakers an animated game of base ball was witnessed; when the happy throng repaired to their homes expressing themselves as highly pleased with their first Juneteenth celebration. — Parsons (Kentucky) Weekly, 22 June 1895

Sherman people celebrated the Juneteenth at the beautiful Fred Douglas school grounds and the handsome Wood Lake park pavilion, midway between Sherman and Denison, on the electric railway. — Freeman (Indianapolis, IN), 27 June 1908

June 19th, or, as it is humorously referred to, “Juneteenth,” is the day the news of the emancipation proclamation reached Texas, so annually the day is celebrated much as we do Fourth of July. — Chicago Defender, 3 July 1915

‘Plead’

Donald Trump was in court in Miami last week, and as a result there was considerably more interest than usual in the word plead.

Plead is defined as “to make a plea of a specified nature.” The question most often associated with the word, however, is not so much its meaning as it is the correct way to use it in the past tense. The good news is that there are multiple ways of forming the past tense of plead: pleaded, pled, and plead. While some usage guides of yore have cautioned against using pled, it may be found in both legal and non-legal use.

Donald Trump became the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom Tuesday to dozens of felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents and refusing government demands to give them back.
— Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, and Adriana Gomez Licon, AP News, 14 June 2023

In his second arraignment this year, Mr Trump pled not guilty to all of the charges laid out in an unsealed indictment on Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Miami, Florida.
— Ariana Baio, The Independent (London), 14 June 2023

…some acknowledged that Trump’s mounting legal challenges—an earlier indictment in New York, where Trump plead not guilty to felony counts related to payments intended to silence an adult-film actress during his 2016 campaign.
— Isaac Arnsdorf & Amy Gardner, The Washington Post, 10 June 2023

‘Ropey’

Ropey had a small spike in lookups last week, after the word was used by Paul McCartney, describing how AI technology had helped create a Beatles song with posthumous vocals by John Lennon.

McCartney said director Peter Jackson had used the technology for the 2021 documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back,” which looks at the Fab Four making their 1970 album “Let It Be.” "He was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," McCartney said.
— Reuters, 13 Jun. 2023

The more common senses of ropey are “resembling rope,” “muscular, sinewy,” and “capable of being drawn into a thread.” However, in addition to these there is a slang sense (seemingly intended by McCartney), that we define as “poor, lousy.”

‘Barranca’

Golf has for the second time in a month caused a word to spike in lookups. This time it was barranca, a less fraught word than last week, when whitewash was widely used to refer to the proposed merger of the PGA with a Saudi Arabian golf association.

What is the barranca at the 2023 U.S. Open?
(headline) — USA Today Sports, 15 June 2023

We offer two definitions for barranca: “a deep gully or arroyo with steep sides” and “a steep bank or bluff.” The word comes from the Spanish barranco, meaning “cliff, precipice, gully, ravine.”

‘Sovereignty’

The Supreme Court affirmation of the Indian Child Welfare Act caused lookups to spike for sovereignty.

“Today’s decision is a major victory for Native tribes, children and the future of our culture and heritage,” Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskins wrote on Twitter. “It is also a broad affirmation of the rule of law, and of the basic constitutional principles surrounding relationships between Congress and tribal nations. We hope this decision will lay to rest the political attacks aimed at diminishing tribal sovereignty and creating instability throughout Indian law.”
— Native News Online, 15 June 2023

Sovereignty may be spelled two ways, one common (sovereignty) and the other less so (sovranty). Among the meanings are “freedom from external control,” “supreme power over a body politic,” “an autonomous state,” and “a country's independent authority and the right to govern itself.” The last of these senses is the one most relevant to tribal sovereignty, which refers to the right of tribal nations to maintain autonomous self-government.

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Nidifuguous’

Our word worth knowing this week is nidifugous, defined as “leaving the nest soon after hatching.” This word is most often found in ornithological settings, applied to young birds that achieve independence quickly. However, there is no rule saying that you cannot use it of your children, either in describing how they actually behave or simply how you hope that they will.