The Words of the Week - Sept. 22

‘Gridlock’

The United Nations General Assembly was in session last week, as was the United States Congress, and among the words that spiked as a result was gridlock, in both literal and figurative uses.

With the start of the United Nations General Assembly, expected to be the largest gathering of its kind in nearly a decade, the New York City Department of Transportation released their list of Gridlock Alert days through the end of 2023.
— NBC New York, 14 Sept. 2023

Members of Congress are still in discussions about Washington’s next funding bill, but as gridlock continues, the country is inching closer to another government shutdown.
— Zach Wichter and Nathan Diller, USA Today, 21 Sept. 2023

The literal sense of gridlock is defined as “a traffic jam in which a grid of intersecting streets is so completely congested that no vehicular movement is possible,” and the figurative one as “a situation resembling gridlock (as in congestion or lack of movement).” When one considers how long we have had the grid system in cities (well over a hundred years) and how long we have had traffic (well before we had a grid system), it is surprising how recent the word gridlock is; our earliest use dates from 1980.

The fears arising from the recent transit strike in New York City of “Gridlock,” “Spillback” and dangerously unhealthy carbon monoxide levels underscore our concern about the inescapable relationship of mass transit, pollution and congestion.
— Increasing Commuting by Transit and Ridesharing, 1980

It should be noted that gridlock wasted no time in becoming firmly ensconced in our language, and almost immediately took on its figurative sense; our earliest record of this use also dates from 1980.

But the Environmental Protection Agency’s policies make it impossible to burn anything else, he said—a “governmental grid-lock” that prevents any action.
—Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), 13 Nov. 1980

‘Tase’

Tase was also in the news a good amount, after police officers shot a band director with a stun gun at a high school football game.

Alabama band director tased and arrested after high school football game for refusing to stop performance, police say
— (headline) CNN, 20 Sept. 2023

Tase is defined as “to shoot with a Taser gun.” It is a back-formation from the word Taser, which is a trademark used for a gun that fires electrified darts to stun and immobilize a person. The name Taser is said to have been taken from the name of an old children’s sci-fi adventure story, Tom Swift’s Electric Rifle.

‘Baroque’

Baroque was also among our top lookups last week, after an actor, Russell Brand, used the word to describe allegations that he had committed numerous sexual assaults.

“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Mr. Brand said in the video, adding that past sexual encounters had been “always consensual.”
— Alex Marshall, The New York Times, 18 Sept. 2023

The meaning intended by Brand was unclear to some, but perhaps may best match the sense of the word that we define as “characterized by grotesqueness, extravagance, complexity, or flamboyance.” Other senses of baroque are “irregularly shaped” (a sense that is used of pearls), and “of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a style of artistic expression prevalent especially in the 17th century that is marked generally by use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement, and tension.”

‘Rosh Hashanah’

This past week saw the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and as a result searches (and mentions) of Rosh Hashanah increased greatly.

Police investigated bomb threats at a number of synagogues across the United States during the two days of Rosh Hashanah, as a wave of threats that have interrupted congregations for months continued into the High Holy Days.
— Philissa Cramer, The Jerusalem Post, 18 Sept. 2023

We define Rosh Hashanah as “the Jewish New Year observed on the first day and by Orthodox and Conservative Jews also on the second day of Tishri” (and Tishri, for those interested, is the first month of the civil year or the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar). Rosh Hashanah itself comes from the Late Hebrew rōsh hashshānāh (literally, “beginning of the year”). This holiday and Yom Kippur are also known as the High Holy Days (and in Hebrew are referred to as yamim noraʾim, which translates to “days of awe”).

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Sororal’

This week’s word worth knowing is sororal, defined as “of, relating to, or characteristic of a sister.” Sororal comes from the Latin soror, meaning “sister.” It is one of a number of words in English from this root, including sorority, sororize (“to associate or hold fellowship as sisters”), and sorosis (“an association of women, as for social purposes”).