The Words of the Week - Apr. 26

‘Unindicted coconspirator’

Unindicted coconspirator spiked in lookups late in the week, after Donald Trump was named as one in an Arizona indictment.

Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, is among 18 people charged in Arizona with illegally seeking to claim the state’s 2020 electoral votes for the then-U.S. president, in an indictment that names Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.
— Andrew Goudsward and Daniel Trotta, Reuters, 25 Apr. 2024

We define unindicted coconspirator as “a person who is named in an indictment as one who took part in a conspiracy to commit a crime but who is not charged in the indictment.” The word has been in use since the late 1940s.

Amil Demes, investigator of the District Attorney of Fresno, and Walter I. Daugherty, Fresno realty broker, were named as “unindicted co-conspirators but not as defendants.”
— Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, 23 Sept. 1949

‘Elector’

Elector also saw an increase in lookups as a result of the Arizona indictments.

Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and Arizona ‘fake electors’ charged with state crimes
— (headline) NBC, 24 Apr. 2024

Elector has been in use since the 15th century, with a variety of meanings (“one qualified (or entitled) to vote in an election,” “any of the German princes entitled to take part in choosing the Holy Roman Emperor”). The relevant meaning referenced above is “a member of the electoral college in the U.S.” The electoral college is the constitutionally mandated process for electing the U.S. president and vice president. Each state appoints as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress (U.S. senators, representatives, and government officers are ineligible); the District of Columbia has three votes. A winner-take-all rule operates in every state except Maine and Nebraska. 

‘Passover’

Passover fell on this past week, and the word trended sharply in lookups, as it does every year about this time.

Passover is a complicated holiday in any given year. This year it’s particularly fraught
— (headline) The Berkshire Eagle, 22 Apr. 2024

Passover (also referred to as Pesach) is a Jewish holiday beginning on the 14th of Nisan (the seventh month of the civil year or the first month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar) and commemorating the Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. The name has a literal origin, referring to the exemption of the Israelites from the slaughter of the firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 12:23–27).

‘Carnation’

Carnation had a rare spike in lookups, as this week saw the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese revolution, whose name is closely associated with this flower (it is said that soldiers wore carnations given to them by protestors).

Portugal marks the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution army coup that brought democracy
— (headline) AP News, 25 Apr. 2024

We define carnation as “a plant of any of numerous often cultivated and usually double-flowered varieties or subspecies of an Old World pink (Dianthus caryophyllus) found in many color variations.” When examining the etymology of the word some are slightly confused to find that it comes from a root meaning, quite simply, “flesh” (carn-). Carnation shares its roots with such decidedly non-floral words as carnivorous, carnage, and carnal knowledge. Why is this? Because before it was used to describe a flower, carnation was used to refer to the color of certain tints of human flesh.

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Objectee’

Our word worth knowing this week is objectee, defined as “one that is objected to.” Everyone has a certain number of people in their life who they object to, for any number of reasons, and we hope it is both pleasing and helpful to know the proper word for such people. English is rich in nouns that end in -ee; in addition to such well-known specimens as employee, we have words such as muggee (“a person who is mugged”), indictee (“one that is indicted”), and propagandee (“one subjected to propagandizing”).