The Words of the Week - Sept. 30

’Sabotage’

Sabotage was in many news stories last week, after a gas pipeline leading from Russia was found to have been damaged.

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Thursday it was "very obvious" who was behind the suspected sabotage against the Nord Stream pipelines which caused major leaks into the Baltic Sea.
— Reuters, 29 Sept. 2022

Sabotage has a number of definitions; the ones most relevant to the situation described above are “destructive or obstructive action carried on by a civilian or enemy agent to hinder a nation's war effort” or “an act or process tending to hamper or hurt.” The word came into English in the beginning of the 20th century (borrowed from French), with the initial meaning of “destruction of an employer's property (such as tools or materials) or the hindering of manufacturing by discontented workers.” A person who engages in sabotage is a saboteur.

’Exodus’

Exodus spiked dramatically in lookups, following reports that hundreds of thousands of Russians were leaving Russia.

Russian exodus shows no signs of easing as Ukraine war looms over recruits
— (headline) NBC News, 27 Sept. 2022

We define this sense of exodus as “a mass departure.” The word also may be used with the meaning “the mainly narrative second book of canonical Jewish and Christian Scripture”; when used in this sense Exodus is capitalized. The Biblical book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, a sense that predated its general use referring to any mass departure. The word was adopted into English (via Latin) from Greek Exodos, which literally means "the road out.”

’Rosh Hashanah’

This past week saw the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and as a result searches (and mentions) of Rosh Hashanah increased greatly.

For all but a week a year, the city of Uman is like any small city in Ukraine. The economy usually revolves around a bus factory and some grain processing facilities. But every fall, thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world transform a central neighborhood in Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
— NPR, 28 Sept. 2022

We define Rosh Hashanah as "the Jewish New Year observed on the first day and by Orthodox and Conservative Jews also on the second day of Tishri” (and Tishri, for those interested, is “the first month of the civil year or the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar). Rosh Hashanah itself comes from the Late Hebrew rōsh hashshānāh (literally, “beginning of the year”).

’Hurricane’

Hurricane saw an increase in lookups, after an extremely large one of these inflicted significant damage on Florida.

After FEMA update, Biden says Ian could be ‘deadliest hurricane in Florida's history’
— (headline) USA Today, 29 Sept. 2022

We are often asked about the difference between hurricanes and cyclones. A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone, one that has winds of at least 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, and is usually accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning. A typhoon is also a type of cyclone; it is applied to such storms when they occur in the region of the Philippines or the South China Sea, and the name hurricane is typically used for rotating storms in the Atlantic and Northern Pacific oceans. 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.”

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Maledicent’

Our word worth knowing this week is maledicent, defined as “addicted to speaking evil.” It’s nice to know, but maybe try to not be the person who is well-described by this word.

In a 1995 speech on Senate decorum, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) denounced senators who accuse their colleagues of dissembling: "The use of such maledicent language on the Senate floor is quite out of place, and to accuse other senators of being liars is to skate on very, very thin ice, indeed.”
— Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post (online), 24 Jul. 2015