Words of the Week - Feb. 4

’Hiney’ & ‘heinie’

One of the English language’s seemingly innumerable synonyms for buttocks was much in the news last week, after the governor of West Virginia exhorted a popular singer to kiss this portion of his dog’s anatomy.

The 70-year-old Republican governor ended his televised State of the State address Thursday night by lifting up his English bulldog and flashing its rear end to the cameras and crowd. “Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there: Kiss her hiney," Justice said, grinning as people applauded and some gave him a standing ovation.
— Leah Willingham, Associated Press, 28 Jan. 2022

Hiney is a variant form of heinie, which is itself defined simply as “buttocks.” If this word doesn’t really work for you, we can al offer you backside, behind, booty (also bootie), bottom, breech, bum, buns, butt, buttocks, caboose, can, cheeks, croup, curpin, curple,  derriere (or derrière), doup, drodum, duff, fanny, fud, fundament, hams, haunches, hunkers, hurdies, keister (also keester), nates, posterior, rear, rear end, rump, seat, tail, tail end, tokus, and tush.

’Hunker down’

Plunging temperatures and approaching storms caused newspaper editors the country over to find ways to use hunker down in their headlines.

Coloradans Hunker Down In Preparation For Frigid Temps
— (headline) CBS Denver, 2 Feb. 2022

Air passengers in winter storm hunker down for overnight stay at Clinton National
— (headline) Arkansas Democrat Gazette (arkansasonline.com), 3 Feb. 2022

With freezing temps in North Texas forecast, child care providers hunker down before storm
(headline) Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX), 2 Feb. 2022

Hunker down, a phrasal verb chiefly found in the U.S., has two meanings: “to lower the body to the ground by bending the legs,” and “to stay in a place for a period of time” (presumably the one that was intended in recent headlines). The last time hunker down trended this much was back in March of 2020, when Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans “should be prepared that they’re going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing” in order to stop the spread of Covid-19.

’Sherpa’

Coverage of President Biden’s possible picks for the Supreme Court justice caused a spike in lookups for Sherpa.

Biden taps former Senator Doug Jones as "sherpa" to guide Supreme Court pick
— (headline) CBS News, 1 Feb. 2022

We define Sherpa as “a member of a Tibetan people living on the high southern slopes of the Himalayas in eastern Nepal and known for providing support for foreign trekkers and mountain climbers.” The word has been in English use since the first half of the 19th century, initially simply in reference to the Tibetan people in this part of Eastern Nepal. Over time it has taken on increasingly transferred and figurative senses, and now is starting to see use referring to a guide in some non-mountaineering sense.

’HBCU’

HBCU was in the news throughout much of last week, after a number of colleges and universities meriting this distinction were subjected to bomb threats.

The FBI has identified suspects accused of making threats to HBCUs this week, official says
— (headline) CNN, 3 Feb. 2022

HBCU is defined as “a college or university in the U.S. established before 1964 for African American students : a historically Black college or university.” The term HBCU was created as a federal designation during the 1986 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which expanded federal funding for colleges and universities.

’Commander’

Commander was on the minds of many people, after a football team that decided to no longer use a name that was widely regarded as racist announced that they would henceforth be known as the Commanders.

After 87 years as the Redskins and 18 months as the Washington Football Team, the franchise is now officially the Commanders. The decision has been a year-and-a-half in the making after much built-up tension and public outcry against the racist connotations associated with the team’s previous name.
— Sarah Sicard, Military Times, 2 Feb. 2022

Commander has been in use since the 14th century, and has a variety of possible meanings. These include “the chief officer in command of a military force or unit,” “the ranking officer (as a lieutenant or captain) in charge of a division, a district, a precinct, or a squad in certain metropolitan police departments,” “a naval executive officer in command of a ship, station, or installation,” “the officer in charge of a fire company in certain fire departments,” and “a heavy beetle or wooden mallet.” The last time commander spiked in lookups was about six weeks ago, when it was announced that this would be the name of the Joe and Jill Biden’s new dog.

Our Antedating of the Week

Our antedating of the week is copycat, a word we define as either “one who imitates or adopts the behavior or practices of another” or “an imitative act or product.” Our earliest known record of use had been in 1896, but recent findings show that we have had copycats among us since at least 1887.

A suggestion to the friends of cremation: If all who appreciated the wisdom of this theory would write simple directions for their funerals, they would do a work for progress ten times greater than they would believe. Each example would have ten followers. We are a world of “copy-cats.”
— The Daily Surf (Santa Cruz_, CA), 1 Oct. 1887