The Words of the Week - Nov. 8

‘Cast one’s ballot’

Among the many, many trending lookups this week related to the 2024 election was the idiom cast one’s ballot.

A total of 197,636 voters casted their ballots early between Oct. 25 and Saturday in the greater Capital Region. That's up 77.6% from the last presidential election cycle.
— Tyler A. McNeil, The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, New York), 5 Nov. 2024

To cast one’s ballot is to vote in an election. The word ballot comes from ballotta, the Italian word for “little ball”: when voting was done by the people of Venice during the Renaissance, secrecy was assured by the use of little colored or marked balls. Now any means of secret voting—by ball, piece of paper, or voting machine—is called a ballot. So is the right to vote itself, as in “access to the ballot.”

‘Exit poll’

Exit poll also saw increased lookups this week during the election.

The gender gap between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump persists amid voters who hit the polls on Tuesday, according to exit polls.
— Rebecca Morin and Michael Collins, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2024

We define exit poll as “a poll taken (as by news media) of voters leaving the voting place that is usually used for predicting the winners.” The first-known use of exit poll is relatively recent, occurring in 1976.

‘Bellwether’

The use of bellwether in election forecasts led to a surge in lookups for the word.

So, why is Saginaw County considered a bellwether? Since 2008, the presidential candidate who earned the most Saginaw County votes went on to win the election nationally, although the local margin of victory has increasingly narrowed each cycle.
— Justin Engel, The Saginaw (Michigan) News, 5 Oct. 2024

We define the sense of bellwether used here as “an indicator of trends.” Because it suggests the act of forecasting, one might be inclined to think that bellwether has something to do with weather. But the wether in bellwether has to do with sheep, not meteorology. Since long ago, it has been common practice for shepherds to hang a bell around the neck of one sheep in their flock, thereby designating it the lead sheep. This animal was historically called the bellwether, a word formed by a combination of the Middle English words belle, meaning “bell,” and wether, a noun that refers to a male sheep, and today specifically to a castrated male sheep.

‘Recrudescence’

Recrudescence was one of the top lookups on Wednesday, following a social media post by English lexicographer and star of the game show Countdown.

Meanwhile, Susie Dent subtly shared her views on the fact that Trump had won a second term in the White House. The Countdown star said: “Word of the day is ‘recrudescence’ (17th century): the return of something terrible after a time of reprieve.”
— Jacob Stolworthy, The Independent (United Kingdom), 6 Nov. 2024

Our Unabridged dictionary defines recrudescence as “a new outbreak after a period of abatement or inactivity.” Recrudescence comes from the Latin verb recrudescere, meaning “to become raw again” (used, for example, of wounds). Ultimately, it can be traced back to the Latin word crudus, meaning “raw” (If you suspect that crude also comes from crudus, you are correct; another well-known descendant is cruel). In its literal, medical sense, recrudescence refers to a renewed outbreak of a disease. In extended use, it most often describes the return of an undesirable condition, such as a war or a plague, or the return of an undesirable idea.

‘Misogynoir’

Misogynoir became a top lookup on Thursday morning following the election due to its appearance in news articles and social media.

There’s no shortage of political hot takes on Donald Trump’s presidential win, so I’ll spare you another. I’m going to focus on how this feels—not just for me but for countless others who have spent their whole lives believing in the foundational principles of our nation, even when those principles didn’t protect us. … In Harris, a brown daughter of immigrants, he saw the perfect foe. His attacks on her were part of his appeal. He showed that misogynoir can win and his voters proved him right.
— Kimberly Atkins Stohr, The Boston Globe, 7 Nov. 2024

We define misogynoir as “hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against Black women.” The word is a blend of misogyny and the French word noir, meaning “black.” Coinage of the word is credited to the Black scholar and activist Moya Bailey, who used it in a posting to the Crunk Feminist Collective blog in 2010.

Word Worth Knowing: ‘Speluncar’

Speluncar, defined in our Unabridged dictionary as an adjective meaning “of or relating to a cave,” is far less common than its speluncar kin, the nouns spelunker (“one who makes a hobby of exploring and studying caves”) and spelunking (“the hobby or practice of exploring caves”). All three come from the Latin noun spelunca, meaning—you guessed it—“cave.”