The Words of the Week - September 20

Marly marl

‘Cyclone’

Lookups for cyclone were high this week, as a storm dumped historic levels of rain on southeast North Carolina.

“‘Historic rain’ from Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight brings 1,000-year flooding, NWS says”
— (headline), NBC-WYFF (Greenville, SC), 17 Sept. 2024

A cyclone brewing off the coast of the southeastern United States may soon strengthen into a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center has said. The weather system—named Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight—is moving toward the U.S. coast and is expected to make landfall in South Carolina this afternoon, causing flash flooding across the region. Upon reaching tropical storm strength, it would become Tropical Storm Helene, the eighth named storm of the 2024 hurricane season.
— Jess Thomson, Newsweek, 16 Sept. 2024

We define cyclone as “a storm or system of winds that rotates about a center of low atmospheric pressure, advances at a speed of 20 to 30 miles (about 30 to 50 kilometers) an hour, and often brings heavy rain.” The word has been used in English since the mid-1800s, and is a modification of the Greek word kyklōma, meaning “wheel” or “coil,” which in turns comes ultimately from kyklos, meaning “circle.”

‘Rhetoric’

Rhetoric has been used in a lot of political speeches of late, as well as in political journalism, leading to a rise in lookups for the word. Rhetoric also usually sees a bump in lookups around this time of year as students return to school.

Donald Trump claimed without evidence Monday that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments that he is a threat to democracy had inspired the latest apparent attempt on his life, despite his own long history of inflammatory campaign rhetoric and advocacy for jailing or prosecuting his political enemies.
— Michelle L. Price and Will Weissert, Associated Press, 17 Sept. 2024

Beyond the conspiracies, others on the right have blamed Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Democrats in general for using rhetoric that they claim has put Trump under fire. The Republican presidential candidate himself said “Comrade Kamala Harris” had made statements that had “taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.”
— Rachel Leingang, The Guardian (United States), 17 Sept. 2024

Since the ancients, educators have been teaching the skills of eloquent speaking and writing. (The Greek word rhētorikē literally means “art of oratory.”) But smooth talking makes people suspicious, which is why one modern sense of rhetoric is “insincere or grandiloquent language.” While much political speechifying may be judged as insincere or grandiloquent, people also use rhetoric broadly to refer to a type or style of speech.

‘Racketeering’

Racketeering began to spike in lookups following news of charges against Sean Combs, known professionally as Diddy.

Sean Combs, the embattled music mogul, has been indicted on three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
— Ben Sisario and Julia Jacobs, The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2024

The verb racketeer means “to carry on a racket,” with the relevant sense of racket being “a fraudulent scheme, enterprise, or activity.” This racket is etymologically distinct from the racket referring to any of various sporting devices used in tennis, badminton, etc. The latter comes ultimately from the Arabic word rusgh, meaning “wrist,” while the origins of the criminal racket (which is also used to refer to a noisy din, among other things) are unknown.

‘Pager’

Lookups for pager rose after a deadly attack in Lebanon involving the devices.

Hundreds of pagers blew up at the same time across Lebanon on Tuesday in an apparently coordinated attack that targeted members of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in the region, Lebanese and Hezbollah officials said. The attack came a day after Israeli leaders had warned that they were considering stepping up their military campaign against Hezbollah, which has been firing on northern Israel since last year in solidarity with Hamas and its war with Israel in Gaza. … Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said that at least nine people had been killed, including a young girl, and more than 2,700 others injured, with about 200 in critical condition.
— Patrick Kingsley, et al., The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2024

A pager is a small radio receiver that beeps, vibrates, or flashes to alert the user to an incoming message which is usually displayed on a small screen. The word pager comes from the verb page, meaning “to summon by repeatedly calling out the name of.”

Word Worth Knowing: ‘Marly’

Marly is an adjective that describes, quite understandably, that which contains or resembles marl. And what, pray tell, is marl? We’re glad you asked. We define marl as “a loose or crumbling earthy deposit (as of sand, silt, or clay) that contains a substantial amount of calcium carbonate.” The term has been applied to a great variety of sediments and rocks with a considerable range of composition, and ultimately comes from Gaulish, the Celtic language of the ancient Gauls. And why is marly worth knowing? We’re glad you asked this second question! As marl has been used historically by poets, including Shakespeare, more generally as a synonym of earth, then why not use marly (or marlaceous, another adjective formed from marl) as a synonym of earthy as in “marlaceous décor” or “marly flavors”? There’s literally nothing stopping you!