The Words of the Week - Feb. 24

'Special grand jury'

Special grand jury spiked in lookups last week, after the foreperson of a jury of this type caused some media excitement by talking about some of the things her jury had discussed recently.

On Tuesday, Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand jury in Fulton County, went on a media tour of sorts, giving interviews to NBC News, The New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news outlets, and she is apparently enjoying her moment in the spotlight.
— Barbara McQuade, MSNBC, 23 Feb. 2023

We define special grand jury as "a grand jury summoned by a court usually at its discretion in addition to or in place of the regular grand jury (as when the regular grand jury has already been discharged)." A regular grand jury, one that is not so special, is "a jury that examines accusations against persons charged with crime and if the evidence warrants makes formal charges on which the accused persons are later tried." Grand juries, whether special or not, do not decide whether to convict a defendant, only whether they will be indicted or not. The decision of guilt is rendered by a petit jury, which is "a jury of twelve persons that is impaneled to try and to decide the facts at issue in a trial."

'Blizzard'

Blizzard has been in the news quite a bit of late, something that is not uncommon for the month of February. What is uncommon, however, is the geographic area where this particular blizzard is predicted to take place.

Blizzards are not typically associated with Southern California, but residents were nevertheless preparing on Thursday for a potent winter storm that forecasters warned could make mountain roads unpassable.
— Judson Jones & Derrick Bryson Taylor, The New York Times, 23 Feb. 2023

We define blizzard in a few ways, including "a long severe snowstorm," "an intensely strong cold wind filled with fine snow," and "an overwhelming rush or deluge." The National Weather Service, on the other hand, has a considerably narrower definition; in order for them to classify something as a blizzard it must have at least three hours of snow with winds reaching 35 MPH, and visibility of a quarter mile or less. We have been using blizzard to refer to a variety of severe winter storms for just over 150 years now: the earliest record of this word in reference to snow comes in 1870.

'Divorce'

Divorce also spiked in lookups last week, following its use by a member of Congress, who called for a separation of states.

In the face of some harsh blowback, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Georgia Republican, has tripled down on her proposal for a "national divorce"—splitting the country according to political ideology into "red" Republican states and "blue" Democratic states.
— Isabella Murray, ABC News, 22 Feb. 2023

Divorce is most often used to refer to the end of a marriage: "the action or an instance of legally dissolving a marriage." This is the oldest sense of the word, which came to English from the Latin divertere, meaning "to turn aside, go different ways, leave one's husband." Divorce does have other, more figurative, meanings, such as "a disunion of things closely united."

'Presidents' Day'

Last week also saw the observance of Presidents' Day, a national holiday which is observed with considerable apostrophic variation.

When you think of Presidents' Day, your first thought might be … mattress sales. 
— Matthew Denhart & Amity Shlaes, The Hill, 20 Feb. 2023

Here's what's open and closed on Presidents Day 2023
— (headline) CNN, 20 Feb. 2023

President's Day is celebrated on Monday, February 20, and you may be wondering what is open and closed on this day.
— Michael Reiner, WKBN, 20 Feb. 2023

We place the apostrophe where we do (Presidents') because we define this holiday as "the third Monday in February observed as a legal holiday in most of the states of the U.S. in honor of the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln," and so it is a day that belongs (in a sense) to multiple presidents. If you consider this to be a holiday only in honor of a single president (such as George Washington) then it would make sense to write it as President's Day. The federal name for this holiday according to the United States Code is "Washington's Birthday," but many states and municipalities refer to it as "Presidents' Day," honoring both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It is also sometimes considered to be in honor of all U.S. presidents.

Words Worth Knowing: 'Gobemouche'

Our word worth knowing this week is gobemouche, defined as "a credulous person; especially, one who believes everything he or she hears." This lovely word comes from French, in which language gober means "to gulp down" and mouche means "fly": a gobemouche is someone so credulous and believing that they might swallow flies. (If you are afraid we’re pulling your leg, and that you’re being a gobemouche you can go look it up.)