The Words of the Week - 3/26/2021

Stay tuned for one of our longest citation sources yet.

’Refloat’

A very big boat got itself stuck in a very-big-but-not-quite-big-enough canal, and in the process caused many people to turn to the dictionary to look up the word refloat.

Salvage teams from the Netherlands and Japan have been hired to devise a plan to refloat a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal, the company leasing the vessel said on Thursday.
— Reuters, 25 Mar. 2021

We define refloat more or less exactly as you would expect: “to float (something) again.” Float comes from the Old English flota, meaning “ship.”

’Micturate’ & ’Micturient’

Amazon has recently become embroiled in a controversy regarding whether their employees do or do not feel the need to relieve themselves in bottles, when working in warehouses or while driving trucks.

The Amazon News Twitter account on Wednesday responded to Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan’s (D) criticisms of the company’s alleged workplace mistreatment, writing, “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?”
— Joseph Choi, The Hill, 25 Mar. 2021

Some people may find talk of urination unseemly, which is why we are bringing out some classy words which may make the linguistically squeamish feel more comfortable when the need to discuss such things arises. The word micturate is a synonym for urinate, and is so classy that most people won’t even know what you’re talking about when you use it.

Micturate comes from the Latin micturire, meaning “to desire to urinate.” Micturire also serves as the root of micturient, a word that is obsolete enough that we do not define it. The Oxford English Dictionary does, however, and they do so magnificently. The 1989 Second Edition of the OED, combining an economy of words with an elegance that is well-nigh unmatched, defines micturient as “desirous of making water.” You cannot buy that kind of classiness and lexical precision at Amazon, no matter what sort of Prime membership you have.

’Nepotism’

Nepotism has been high in lookups lately, as is often the case when a politician is thought to have arranged things favorably for family members. The most recent person to be associated with this word is Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York.

The news compounded a growing number of damaging revelations and political woes for Cuomo, who faces an impeachment inquiry and is under investigation for allegedly covering up nursing home Covid deaths and for multiple instances of alleged sexual harassment involving former staff members. Wielding the power of government for the preferential treatment of family and friends could violate state anti-nepotism laws.
— Tom McCarthy, The Guardian (London, Eng.), 25 Mar. 2021

Nepotism is “favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship.” The word came into English in the late 17th century (from the Italian word for nephew, nepote), shortly after the publication of an English translation of an Italian book, Il Nepotismo di Roma. This 1667 work was about the favors granted by the Pope Sixtus IV to family members, especially nephews.

’Filibuster’

Filibuster (“the use of extreme dilatory tactics (as by making long speeches) in an attempt to delay or prevent action especially in a legislative assembly”) has remained high in lookups over the past few weeks, as both political parties continue to argue over its place in the Senate.

 President Biden signaled on Thursday that he would be willing to consider supporting the elimination of the filibuster if Senate Republicans use it to block Democratic legislative priorities from receiving a full vote on the Senate floor.
— Grace Segers, CBS News, 25 Mar. 2021

Filibuster had a number of uses prior to its application in describing a dilatory legislative tactic. Among these is the sense taken on in the mid-19th century, “an irregular military adventurer; specifically, an American engaged in fomenting insurrections in Latin America.”

For his recent exploit before Tabasco, the Vera Cruz papers denounced him as a filibuster. We apprehend they will have to invent a bigger word to characterize his future operations.
— Louisville Morning Courier (Louisville, KY), 21 Dec. 1946

’Weak’ & ‘Feat’

A pair of former White House press secretaries recently posted tweets which appeared to confuse some common words; one mixed up week and weak, while the other did so with feet and feat.

Feet is typically employed as the plural of foot; feat most often means “a deed notable especially for courage.” Week means “a period of seven days,” while weak typically means “lacking strength.” We do not make fun of people who misspell words.

’Greenland’

The etymology of Greenland was a hot topic last week, after Ron Johnson, Senator from Wisconsin, averred that it came from the island once being verdant enough to merit such a descriptor.

He also offered a false history of Greenland to dismiss the effects of global warming.“You know, there’s a reason Greenland was called Greenland,” Mr. Johnson told WKOW-TV in Madison back then. “It was actually green at one point in time.
— Trip Gabriel and Reid J. Epstein, The New York Times, 21 Mar. 2021

Greenland is an island belonging to Denmark in the North Atlantic off northeastern North America, and is the largest island in the world (exclusive of Australia). It is believed to have been named by Erik the Red (AKA Erik Thorvaldsson, AKA Eiríkur Rauði), shortly after he had been banished from Iceland for manslaughter; he chose the name in the belief that it would attract settlers.

Our Antedating of the Week: ’fanaticize’

Our antedating of the week is fanaticize (“to cause to become a fanatic”). Our earliest known use of this verb had previously come in 1812; recent findings show that we’ve been fanaticizing since the late 17th century.

Nay will swear they be the best Saints in World, and have done nothing but what they dare answer to their Maker; they rail against others more modest than themselves, and Fanaticize the whole Church, that in pity and kindness to their languishing Souls do but offer the benefit of the Holy Offices to them, and would apply the most probable remedies, whole vertue might prevail to restore them to their Wits.
— Compassionate conformist, Englands vanity: or The voice of God against the monstrous sin of pride, in dress and apparel: wherein naked breasts and shoulders, antick and fantastick garbs, patches and painting, long perriwigs, towers, bulls, shades, curlings, and crispings, with an hundred more fooleries of both sexes, are condemned as notoriously unlawful, 1683