Time for another ramble about words. More accurately, words, phrases, and sentences that struck me when I first encountered them, prompting me to toss them into a “word document” (double meaning intended) until I could sift through them and construct a column. Here goes:
I take special pleasure in rhyming or “sounds-like” expressions, especially clever ones. Four examples: Frank Bruni (NYT, 5/31) suggested that the New York felony case against the former president MAY be “much ado about rutting.” Paul Kleyman, LA Progressive, (2/19) addressing geriatric deterioration, cautioned readers not to “taint by numbers.” An obituary for TV critic Tom Shales in the Washington Post (1/13) noted his harsh assessment of a CBS program “The District” was “repaid-in-unkind” by naming a program’s incontinent hospital patient after Shales. Final example, a critic of climatologist Michael Mann called him a “ringmaster of the tree-ring circus.” (NYT, 2/7). Kudos for wit in all four cases.
As we all know, Michael Cohen has been in the news the last six months. And we also all know what his job title was: fixer. According to the New York Times, “lawyer by trade, enforcer by nature… he was the fixer.” (5/12) Okay, a few other titles were cited as well. “Mr. Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and longtime henchman.” (NYT, 5/21) “A felon who self-identified as Mr. Trump’s former “thug.” (NYT, 5/20) According to Hope Hicks, “his moniker as ‘Trump’s fixer’ came from him. He was a fixer ‘only because he broke it so that he could fix it.’” (NYT, 5/3)
The most straightforward definition of fixer was in the Cambridge English Dictionary: “someone skilled at arranging for things to happen, especially dishonestly.” My prediction: the use/overuse of this word in conjunction with Cohen will fortify the “dishonest” element in this definition and link it permanently with negative terms… like henchman, felon, and thug.
Cohen’s role conjures up memories of President Nixon aide Chuck Colson. I sought online references to Colson and “fixer” without success, but found frequent mentions of Colson and “ruthless,” “evil genius,” and “hit man”. Colson’s exemplary, later-life example suggests Cohen MIGHT still construct a next act. Regardless, I suspect the fixer label is affixed forever.
Speaking of job titles, three I stumbled upon recently: cruciverbalist, horologist, and vexillologist. I wasn’t familiar with these, are you? They refer to people who create or do crossword puzzles, people who make or repair clocks or watches, and people who study flags. I’m none of the above… but now I know.
I’ve accumulated a long list of words that give me positive pause. Maureen Dowd of the Times supplied two. “Even though (Stormy) described what’s in his dopp kit, (Trump’s lawyers suggested) the 2006 Lake Tahoe rendezvous was a figment of her imagination.” (5/11) So, where’s the term “dopp” come from? These kits were named after Charles Doppelt, a German craftsman whose company started manufacturing them in the mid-1920s. It’s an eponym… something named after a person, place, or thing. Second example, “Trump… shouldn’t be swanning around Iowa, flinging puerile insults at his rivals...” (4/21) Swanning: moving aimlessly, like a swan swimming idly about or meandering in an aimless convoy.
It seems the Times has latched on to the term “buzzy” meaning exciting, partly because a crowd has gathered, a lot is happening, enthusiasm is building, etc. – MAYBE due to slight inebriation. Three examples. Headline, 6/5: “How the Last Dinner Party Became the U.K’s Buzziest Band”. A 5/9 subhead: “A buzzy couple’s separate arrivals on the Met Gala red carpet offer a reminder of the value of a solo photo op.” Intro sentence, 4/9: “In her buzzy memoir, “Sociopath,” Patric Gagne shows herself more committed to revel in her naughtiness than to demystify the condition.” That buzzy was new to me suggests I may not be hanging with the in-crowd.
Do you know what a flock of starlings is called? A murmuration, I learned recently. A bird expert explained in the Washington Post, 2/21. “They ball up as tightly as possible when a falcon is chasing them, incredibly attuned to what everybody else is doing. They can make very sharp movements as if in unison, (with) really fast reactions to what the next guy is doing.” Perhaps a lesson here for humans…
One not-new term I’m fond of: “Congresswoman Greene outlined her demands (but) following her meeting with Speaker Johnson, the answer seems clear. She got bupkis.” (MSNBC Daily, 5/8) Bupkis means “absolutely nothing,” from Yiddish “bobkes” meaning nonsense. It started as North American Jewish slang; it’s more common now, often employed for humorous effect, perhaps because it’s a fun word to say.
Another fun term: delulu. It’s the belief that people can alter reality through sheer will, as in watching a sporting event and, by extraordinary fervor, in my case, directed toward a team wearing Twins or Vikings logos, thinking I can successfully bend the outcome. (Ha! Now THAT’S delulu.) According to the Times, 11/23, delulu, a version of delusional, became popular last summer “as shorthand for unrelenting confidence. Posts with the word have more than five billion views on TikTok.” Who knew?
A new semi-medical word for people (like me) that haven’t yet contracted COVID? Novids, a term that described nearly 1 in 4 U.S. adults in late 2022, although the Washington Post story, 4/9, noted logically “it’s likely the novids number has declined since then.”One last word: psithurism… noun, the sound of wind blowing through trees, rustling their leaves (pronounced sith-err-iz-um). It’s a rare, obsolete term. Maybe we all need to listen to wind sounds more attentively.
And, one memorable paragraph, from historian Heather Cox Richardson, 3/30, in her blog, “Letters from an American,” writing about the U.S. after the Civil War: “It was all too much for voters. White supremacist violence across the South horrified them, returning power to southern whites infuriated them, the reduction of Black soldiers to quasi-slaves enraged them, and Johnson’s attacks on Congress alarmed them.”
Hmmm. Horrified, infuriated, enraged, alarmed voters. It seems change was in the air.
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I’m proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. My colleagues:
I love your column! Words are so fun. I am a definite dululu when it comes to Cyclone sports. I know I make a difference just by believing in them. Oh, and psithurism is now in my poetic vocabulary. Thanks.
Oh my, what a delight this column is! Keep ‘em coming, Kurt.