The Words of the Week - June 30

‘Affirmative action’

Affirmative action spiked in lookups late in the week, after the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling on the use of this in most higher education admissions.

Supreme Court guts affirmative action in college admissions. The high court struck down race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
— (headline) Politico, 29 June 2023

We define affirmative action as “the use of policies, legislation, programs, and procedures to improve the educational or employment opportunities of members of certain demographic groups (such as minority groups, women, and older people) as a remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against such groups.”

In addition, our entry for this word has a note, which reads as follows: “Affirmative action gives limited preference to qualified groups (which may include racial and ethnic minorities, women, older people, people with disabilities, and some veterans) in job hiring, admission to institutions of higher education, the awarding of government contracts, and other social benefits.”

Although the two words found in this entry have been used in conjunction for hundreds of years (referring to any action that was done in an affirmative manner), the sense that we define above dates in general use from the 1960s, after some federal policies of affirmative action were initiated under the administration of Lyndon Johnson. Occasional uses of affirmative action, used in reference to a policy to combat the effects of structural racism, may be found in the decades prior.

He called the recent position taken by the FHA, to omit reference to race, “a hands-off policy,” when the national need was for affirmative action. — George Streators, The New York Times, 26 June 1947

‘Bravado’

Bravado was also looked up a good deal more than usual recently, after Donald Trump said that he had been demonstrating this quality in a leaked audio recording of him.

Trump says he wasn’t holding classified documents mentioned in tape: ‘I would say it was bravado’
— (headline) The Hill, 28 June 2023

Bravado may be defined in a number of ways, including “showy or demonstrative conduct or action often characterized by bluster and swagger,” “a pretense of bravery," and “the quality or state of being foolhardy." The word comes from the Italian adjective bravo (meaning "wild" or “courageous”), a root it shares with brave.

‘Riot’

Riot was in the news a considerable amount last week, with lookups fueled in part by two instances of civil unrest separated by over 50 years.

France unrest: Riots spread, thousands march in memory of shot teenager
— (headline) Reuters, 29 June 2023

Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Stonewall Inn Monday—the site of the 1969 riot viewed as sparking the modern L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement—to pledge her support to the community, lament the threats it faces, and take selfies with the assembled drinkers on the day after the city’s Pride march.
— The New York Times, 26 June 2023

A riot, in the contexts used above, is defined as “a violent public disorder, specifically : a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent.” The word has been used in English for a very long time, having been adopted in the 13th century from the Anglo-French word riote, meaning “rash action, noise, disorder.”

‘Peloton’

The Tour de France begins this weekend, which means that a large number of cycling terms, such as peloton will be used with greatly increased frequency for the next month or so.

Face masks and selfie bans return to limit COVID-19 in Tour de France peloton
— (headline) cyclingnews.com, 29 June 2023

A peloton is “the main body of riders in a bicycle race.” The word comes directly from French, in which it means “ball” (although in French it is most often used with the meaning “group”). Platoon (“a subdivision of a company-sized military unit normally consisting of two or more squads or sections”) is another word in English descended from the French peloton.

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Innumerate’

The week’s word worth knowing is innumerate, defined as “marked by an ignorance of mathematics and the scientific approach.” The same word may be applied to a person; someone who has an ignorance of mathematics is also an innumerate, much as illiterate may be an adjective meaning “unable to read or write” or a noun meaning “one who is unable to read or write.”