The Words of the Week - June 24

Are these blankets pardoning someone?

’Holiday’

Holiday was in the news last week, after President Biden indicated that he wanted to suspend the federal gas tax for up to three months.

A federal gas tax holiday would aim to lower the cost of filling up your car. But politicians and economists are divided over how much help it would provide.
— Veronica Dagher and Ayse Kelce, The Wall Street Journal, 23 Jun. 2022

The relevant sense of holiday here is defined as “a period of exemption or relief.” The word has a number of additional meanings, such as “a day on which one is exempt from work,” “vacation” (this sense is chiefly British, and often used in the phrase on holiday), and “holy day.” This last definition points directly to the etymology of the word: holiday comes from the Old English hāligdæg, which is itself from the words for _ holy_ (hālig) and day (dæg).

’Abject’

Abject was also looked up a considerable amount last week, after the response of the Uvalde police department to a school shooting was described as a failure of this type.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Steven McCraw said on Tuesday (June 21) that the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting was "an abject failure" in which a commander put the lives of officers over those of the children.
— Reuters, 21 Jun. 2022

This sense of abject is defined as “very bad or severe.” When the word first came into English use (in the early 15th century) it has the meaning of “cast off” or “rejected” (it was taken from the Latin abjectus, meaning "downcast, humble, sordid). While abject may modify a great number of nouns, it most often is found describing either failure or poverty.

’Wire fraud’

A politician was indicted on charges of wire fraud, causing lookups for this word to spike.

Andrew Gillum, former Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for Florida governor indicted on federal charges of wire fraud, false statements to FBI
— (headline) CBS News, 23 Jun. 2022

We define wire fraud as “fraud committed using a means of electronic communication (such as a telephone or computer).” Our legal definition of fraud is “any act, expression, omission, or concealment calculated to deceive another to his or her disadvantage,” noting that it also has the specific meaning of “a misrepresentation or concealment with reference to some fact material to a transaction that is made with knowledge of its falsity or in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity and with the intent to deceive another and that is reasonably relied on by the other who is injured thereby.”

While many think of wire fraud as a fairly recent form of wrongdoing, we have citations for its use from over a hundred years ago.

They were charged with having mulcted Newport Logan, a New Zealand sheep raiser, of $7,000 by means of a “wire” fraud.
— New York Tribune, 20 Jun. 1919

Wire Fraud King Fights For Convicts
— (headline) New York Herald, 4 Dec. 1918

’Miranda rights’

Miranda rights also spiked in lookups, after the Supreme Court issued a ruling involving them.

The Supreme Court limited the ability to enforce Miranda rights in a ruling Thursday that said that suspects who are not warned about their right to remain silent cannot sue a police officer for damages under federal civil rights law even if the evidence was ultimately used against them in their criminal trial.
— Tierney Sneed and Ariane de Vogue, CNN, 23 Jun. 2022

Our legal definition of Miranda rights is “the rights (as the right to remain silent, to have an attorney present, and to have an attorney appointed if indigent) of which an arresting officer must advise the person being arrested.” The Miranda portion comes from Miranda v. Arizona, the 1966 U.S. Supreme Court ruling establishing such rights.

’Blanket’

A non-sleep-related sense of blanket was in the news late in the week, after it was reported that a number of members of Congress had asked for presidential pardons of this nature.

In an interview recorded and shown during the hearing, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to the White House chief of staff, said that Brooks and Gaetz advocated for blanket pardons for House members who were involved in a Dec. 21 meeting.
— Ximena Bustillo, NPR, 23 Jun. 2022

When used as an adjective blanket carries the meaning of “effective or applicable in all instances or contingencies” (as well as “covering all members of a group or class without individual apportionment”). The adjective senses are relative newcomers to English, dating from the late 19th century. The uses as a noun (“a large usually oblong piece of woven fabric used as a bed covering”) and verb (“to cover with or as if with a blanket”) have been in use since the 14th and the 17th centuries, respectively.

’Attorney general’

This is simply a quick reminder that when one is referring to more than one attorney general (as is often the case recently) both attorneys general and attorney generals are acceptable plurals.

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Makebate’

Our word worth knowing for this week is makebate, defined as “one that excites contention and quarrels.” Dating in use from the early 16th century, makebate is now considered obsolete. However, there are certainly enough people out there exciting quarrels or contention that it remains applicable in everyday life.