The Words of the Week - Sept. 8

‘Surveillance’

Surveillance spiked in lookups last week, following reports that the New York City police department would be using drones of this type to look at people in their backyards.

As New York City residents are preparing to barbecue, drink and have a good time over Labor Day weekend, police said that those attending large backyard parties might be visited by a partygoer they were not expecting to show up: A surveillance drone flying over private residences.
— Timothy Bella, The Washington Post, 1 Sept. 2023

Surveillance is defined as "close watch kept over someone or something (as by a detective)." The word came to English directly from French, where the verb surveiller meaning "to watch over" is built from sur- ("over" or "above") + veiller ("to watch"). It traces back to the Latin verb vigilare meaning "to watch, to wake," and comes ultimately from vigil ("awake, watchful").

‘Margarita’

Jimmy Buffett, a singer and songwriter who was known for (among other things) a song titled Margaritaville, passed away recently, and lookups for the word margarita (as well as consumption of the drink, presumably) increased dramatically.

Jimmy Buffett, who died on Friday at age 76, was known for his songs of paradise and affinity for margaritas.
— Sam Burros, People, 4 Sept. 2023

A margarita is "a cocktail consisting of tequila, lime or lemon juice, and an orange-flavored liqueur." The name is thought to have come from the Spanish feminine name Margarita, and the cocktail itself is believed to have originated in the mid-twentieth century.

Was introduced to the Margarita, tequila’s answer to the Martini, while in Mexico some weeks ago. Now informed the Margarita was invented by Mr. Johnny Durlesser, head barman of the Tail o’ the Cock, in 1937.
— Gene Sherman, Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 1955

‘Blurb’

For reasons unknown to us, a number of magazines and newspapers of late have been publishing articles on the blurb.

The Blurb Problem Keeps Getting Worse - Publishing has come to depend on fawning endorsements, but not every title can be electrifying, essential, and revelatory
— (headline) The Atlantic, 28 Aug. 2023

'A Plague on the Industry': Book Publishing's Broken Blurb System
— (headline) Esquire, 7 Sept. 2023

Society of Authors calls use of bad reviews for book blurbs 'morally questionable'
— (headline) The Guardian, 1 Sept. 2023

A blurb is "a short publicity notice (as on a book jacket)"; the word may also function as a verb, meaning "to describe or praise in a blurb." The word was coined by American humorist Gelett Burgess in 1907. Burgess was that year one of the honorees of at the annual dinner of the American Booksellers' Association; he brought with him a mock jacket of his latest book Are You A Bromide?, featuring a doctored picture of a woman that he had lifted from a dental advertisement. The woman was dubbed "Miss Belinda Blurb," and she was shown in the picture as calling out a "blurb," indicated by the caption "Miss Belinda Blurb in the act of blurbing."

‘Playa’

Burning Man Festival On Lockdown, As Rain Turns Playa Into A Muddy, Soupy Mess
— (headline) Deadline.com, 2 Sept. 2023

A playa is "the flat-floored bottom of an undrained desert basin that becomes at times a shallow lake." This word comes from the Spanish (in which language the word means, literally, "beach," and which can be traced further to the Late Latin plagia). This playa should not be confused with another more recently adopted playa, which is a variation on the word player, and which is defined as "a person and especially a man who has many lovers."

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Limicolous’

Our word worth knowing this week is limicolous, which we define as "living in mud." Other dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary, include the qualities mud-loving and mud-dwelling in their definition. Whether you find the limicolous to love mud, or merely to dwell in it, the word was highly apt for describing many of the attendees of this year’s Burning Man festival.