Words of the Week - April 8

’Ramadan’

Ramadan began in the evening this Saturday last, and lookups for the word were high for the entire week.

Gauahar Khan shares funny 'expectations vs reality' video on fasting during Ramadan while avoiding treats(headline) Hindustan Times (Mumbai, Ind.), 6 Apr. 2022

Ramadan is “the ninth month of the Islamic year observed as sacred with fasting practiced daily from dawn to sunset.” The Islamic calendar is shorter than the Gregorian calendar widely used in America, and so Ramadan occurs 10–12 days earlier each year, over the course of a 33-year cycle. It ends with the festival Eid-al-Fitr, which this year falls at the beginning of May.

’Deadlock’

Deadlock trended in lookups this week (the first time the word has done so in the past three months), after Senators were unable to agree on advancing the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

A US Senate panel has deadlocked in a vote to approve President Joe Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court, but she is set to be confirmed anyway later this week.
BBC News, 5 Apr. 2022

We define deadlock as “a state of inaction or neutralization resulting from the opposition of equally powerful uncompromising persons or factions.” The last time it spiked in lookups was early January of this year, when a jury in the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes was temporarily unable to reach a verdict (the deadlock was subsequently broken, and Holmes was convicted of fraud).

’Historic’ & ‘Historical’

Also trending from Justice Jackson was the word historic, when the deadlocked committee failed to prevent her from being confirmed as a member of the Supreme Court.

Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court in historic vote
— (headline) NBC, 7 Apr. 2022

The most relevant sense of historic here is “having great and lasting importance.” Often when something historic occurs, we find that people are interested in distinguishing between this word and historical. Here is what you need to know:

Historic and historical have been used interchangeably by many writers, even in recent years. If you would like to avoid being corrected, however, use historical for matters relating to history (such as ‘the historical record’), and historic to refer to things having great and lasting importance (such as ‘a historic nomination’).

’Archetype’

Archetype showed up in numerous news stories last week, after it was reported that Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, was attempting to trademark the word.

Meghan Markle is trying to trademark the word "archetypes" for the title of her new Spotify podcast.
— New Zealand Herald, 5 Apr. 2022

We define archetype as “the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies” and “a perfect example.” The word comes from the Greek verb archein (meaning "to begin" or "to rule") and the noun typos (“type"). Archetype does have other meanings, including “an inherited idea or mode of thought in the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung that is derived from the experience of the race and is present in the unconscious of the individual” (used primarily in psychology). In general use, however, "a perfect example of something” is the most common sense. The word has been in general English use for well over 400 years, which may complicate trademark efforts.

’Uncompensated’

A number of people were interested in the precise meaning of uncompensated, after The New York Times published a account of how UCLA was trying to convince people to teach classes without paying them for doing so.

In a previous book, Dr. Berry said, he has a page listing all the terms that have been used for contingent faculty: One of them is “uncompensated.”
— Anemona Hartocollis, The New York Times, 6 Apr. 2022

We define uncompensated as “not providing or provided with monetary compensation: not paid or compensated.” If you are trying to get people to work for you without having to pay them money, and would like to disguise this fact, there are a number of synonyms of uncompensated available to you, including honorary, discretionary, gratuitous, pro bono, gratis, and free. (The synonyms are real, but the offer to help you not pay people is not; please pay people who work for you.)

Words You Should Know: ‘Agathokakological’

There is often in life a need to describe things that are neither entirely good nor entirely bad, but rather a mix of these two. You will be greatly relieved to know that there is a single word you can now use to describe your trip to visit your parents, or your attempts at fixing the leak under the sink, as it has the specific definition of “composed of both good and evil.” This word is agathokakological; it is surprisingly useful, and, once you wrap your tongue around its eight syllables, you’ll find that it’s even fun to say.