The Words of the Week - Dec. 16

’Trading card’

Trading cards were in the news last week, after Donald Trump announced that he would soon be releasing a line of these, featuring himself.

Donald Trump’s Major Announcement: Digital Trading Cards Of Himself For “Only $99 Each”
— (headline) Yahoo, 15 Dec. 2022

We define trading card as “a card that usually has pictures of and information about someone (such as an athlete) and that is part of a set which is collected by exchanging cards with other people.” Before the word was used for cards that were actually traded, it was used to refer to cards that contained information about trading (such as business transactions).

People’s Trading Co. Stockholders in this Company are requested to present their Certificates for the purpose of procuring Trading Cards, as the Store is now open and ready for the transaction of business, at 55 State street.
— Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), 28 Oct. 1853

’Martial law’

Martial law found itself receiving a fair amount of attention, after it was reported that the term had been misspelled in texts sent to the former chief of staff for President Trump.

On 17 January 2021, 11 days after the deadly Capitol attack and three days before Biden’s inauguration, Norman wrote: “Mark, in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of no return in saving our Republic !! Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!!!”
— Martin Pengelly, The Guardian (London, Eng.), 14 Dec. 2022

Martial law may be defined as “the law applied in occupied territory by the military authority of the occupying power” or “the law administered by military forces that is invoked by a government in an emergency when the civilian law enforcement agencies are unable to maintain public order and safety.” Because martial is a homophone of marshal, and because marshal also has military meanings, there is often confusion about which word to use. It may help to remember that in modern English martial only functions as an adjective; this is the word you want to use to modify law. Marshal can function as a verb or a noun, with meanings such as “to place in proper rank or position,” or “a general officer of the highest military rank.”

’Extradition’

Extradition was in numerous headlines and news stories last week, after the disgraced head of a crypto exchange was arrested in the Bahamas, and many speculated that he would soon be extradited to the United States.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s failure to secure release on bail in the Bahamas on Tuesday increases the likelihood that he will consent to extradition to the United States to face fraud charges, legal experts said.
— Jack Queen, Reuters, 13 Dec. 2022

Extradition is “the surrender of an alleged criminal usually under the provisions of a treaty or statute by one authority (such as a state) to another having jurisdiction to try the charge.” The word shares its origin with tradition: both come to English from the Latin tradition, meaning “the act of handing over” (this may make more sense if you think of traditions as practices that are handed over from one generation to the next).

’Doxxing’

Doxxing also spiked as the new owner of Twitter stated that he was pursuing legal action against people who he alleged had engaged in this practice.

Elon Musk Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against Trackers; Clarifies Private Jet ‘Doxxing’ Policy
— (headline) Forbes, 14 Dec. 2022

Doxxing is defined as the publicly identification or publishing of private information about (someone), especially when doing so as a form of punishment or revenge. The word may be spelled with either a single X or two, in all its forms (dox/doxx, doxes/doxxes, doxed/doxxed, doxing/doxxing). Dox initially came into use as a respelling of doc, itself a shortened form of the word documents.

’Shutdown’

Shutdown spiked in lookups, along with speculation that political disagreements about funding might once again lead to a government shutdown.

The House voted Wednesday evening to pass a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown at the end of this week with funding currently set to expire on Friday at midnight.
— CNN, 14 Dec. 2022

We define shutdown rather broadly: “the cessation or suspension of an operation or activity.” The reason for this breadth is that there are many things that may be shut down, and many ways in which the word may be applied to each. We have been modifying shutdown with the word government since the 1940s, but in this early use it referred to the government enacting a shutdown of someone else’s activities.

Florida racing fans, finally convinced there was to be no relenting of the government shutdown on turf activities, were planning to close Tropical park’s abbreviated eight-day meeting tomorrow with a prodigal farewell at turnstiles and parimutuel windows.
— Charleston News and Courier (Charleston, SC), 2 Jan. 1945

In the following decade a government shutdown might refer instead to the suppression of political protest by a government.

Little was known about today’s meeting, but it apparently was called in connection with the government shutdown of the student anti-Stalinist newspaper, “Pro Postu.” — Evansville Press (Evansville, IN), 7 Oct. 1957

The use of government shutdown to refer to the cessation of governmental functions due to a lack of funding has been with us since the 1970s; this sense appears to be increasing in recent years.

Gov. Milton J. Shapp today convened his cabinet to discuss preparations for a possible state government “shutdown” at midnight tomorrow. It’s all part of the current budget crisis.
— The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 29 Jun. 1973

Words Worth Knowing: ‘essoiner’

Our word worth knowing this week is essoiner, which is a person who makes an excuse for another’s absence; one who essoins for someone else. Essoin may be defined as “an excuse for not appearing in an English law court at the appointed time,” or simply as “an excuse or delay.” If you need to make an excuse for someone being late this is a useful word to self-describe with, even if the setting is not an English law court.