The Words of the Week - Mar. 29

‘Allision’

Allision had a particularly notable spike (the word was looked up approximately 60 times more often last week than it usually is) due to its being used in describing how a ship caused a bridge in Baltimore to collapse.

The 984’x157’ Dali was outbound from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, with 22 crew and two pilots on board when the allision happened around 1:36 a.m.
— WorkBoat, 26 Mar. 2024

We define allision as “the running of one ship upon another ship that is stationary” and note that it is distinguished from collision. Some sources, particularly those of a maritime nature, insist that contact between a moving body and a stationary one should only be described with this word, similar to how writing guides used to reserve collision for contact between two moving objects (as recently as 2015 the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage insisted that “only two objects in motion can collide”). However, collision and collide are commonly used to refer to such matters as a ship striking a bridge, and there is nothing incorrect about such use.

‘Rescind’

Rescind was also among our top lookups last week after NBC hired, and then unhired, Ronna McDaniel.

NBC Universal rescinded its hiring of former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel after being widely criticized on air by some of its top personalities.
— Rob Golum, Bloomberg, 26 Mar. 2024

Rescind means “to take away, remove, or take back.” The word comes, in part, from the Latin word scindere (“to cut”). It shares this root with several other words in English which are now quite obscure: exscind (“to excise”) and prescind (“to withdraw one’s attention”). The noun form of this verb may be either rescindment or rescission.

‘Gag order’

Gag order saw an increase in lookups after Donald Trump was once again issued one.

Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in New York hush-money criminal case
— (headline) AP News, 27 Mar. 2024

A gag order is “a judicial ruling barring public disclosure or discussion (as by the press) of information related to a case.” The gag portion of this term comes from the Middle English gaggen (meaning “to strangle”), and has been in use since the early 16th century. Gag order itself does not appear in the written record until the middle of the 19th. The last time the word saw a marked increase in lookups was October of last year, when Trump received a gag order from another judge.

‘Maundy Thursday’

Maundy Thursday had its yearly spike in lookups, slightly earlier this year than usual.

King Charles speaks of ‘great sadness’ at missing Maundy Thursday service
— (headline) BBC, 28 Mar. 2024

Maundy Thursday is “the Thursday before Easter observed in commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist.” Maundy by itself can mean “a ceremony of washing the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday,” “alms distributed in connection with the maundy ceremony or on Maundy Thursday,” or “a feast.” Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum (meaning “command, order,” and also the source of the English word mandate), from the words spoken by Jesus to his disciples after washing their feet at the Last Supper: “a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.”

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Tongue-hero’

Our word worth knowing this week is tongue-hero, defined in our 1934 Unabridged Dictionary as “A self-professed hero; a braggart.” Tongue-hero is now obsolete, and therefore found infrequently. Other tongue- compounds that have remained in use include tongue twister (“a word, phrase, or sentence difficult to articulate”), tongue-lash (“to chide or scold”), tongue-tied (“deprived of speech or the power of distinct articulation”), and tongue-biter (“a large parasitic isopod (Codonophilus imbricatus) of Australian waters that attaches itself to the tongue of marine fishes”).