The Words of the Week - Oct. 13

‘Fungible’

Fungible spiked in lookups last week after it appeared in a number of articles about a sum of money that had been slated to go to Iran.

Critics of the White House’s decision to give Iran access to the $6 billion argue that the money is fungible and that any funds Iran receives for humanitarian assistance frees up more money for it to spend on nefarious activities in the Middle East.
— Monica Alba, Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, Peter Alexander and Abigail Williams, NBC News, 11 Oct. 2023

Fungible is defined as “being something (such as money or a commodity) of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in paying a debt or settling an account.” A good example of something that is highly fungible is a $20 bill; it is worth the exact same amount as any other $20 bill, and one specimen may replace another with no loss in value. The word comes from the Latin fungi, meaning “to perform.”

‘Superseding’

Supersede also had a very busy week, after multiple members of Congress were subjected to superseding indictments.

Santos charged with 10 new criminal counts in superseding indictment.
— (headline) The Hill, 10 Oct. 2023

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was hit with new charges Thursday accusing him of accepting bribes from a foreign government and acting as a foreign agent, according to a superseding indictment.

When used in a legal manner supersede has a number of possible meanings, including “to take the place of and render null or ineffective” (the sense employed in the above citations), “to take the place of in authority,” and “to subject to postponement or suspension.” Supersede ultimately derives from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning “to sit on top of,” “to be superior to,” or “to refrain from.”

‘Scarlet letter’

Scarlet letter spiked in lookups, after another member of Congress appeared to possibly (and possibly not) be referencing the title of a book by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Nancy Mace, a Republican member of Congress who was a key vote in ousting Kevin McCarthy as House of Representatives speaker, has donned a white T-shirt with a red letter “A” on it to symbolize her being “demonized” for her decision. “I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week I just had, being a woman up here, and being demonized for my vote and for my voice,” Mace told reporters on Tuesday.
— Oliver Milman, The Guardian (London, Eng.), 11 Oct. 2023

We define scarlet letter as “a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adultery.” The term comes from the title of an 1850 novel by Hawthorne, in which the titular letter signifies the commission of adultery. Adultery, for those who are curious, but do not want to look the word up, is “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person's current spouse or partner.” There is no etymological connection between adultery and adult, although both are of Latin origin; the former is from adulterāre (“to pollute, defile, commit adultery”), and the latter is from adolescere (“to grow up”).

‘Annular’

In non-political news annular was among the star words of the week, owing to an incipient eclipse of this nature.

A solar spectacle will cross the sky this weekend when an annular eclipse known as the "ring of fire" appears across the western hemisphere.
— Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA Today, 10 Oct. 2023

Annular on its own is defined as “of, relating to, or forming a ring.” An annular eclipse is “an eclipse in which a thin outer ring of the sun's disk is not covered by the smaller dark disk of the moon.”

‘Vomit’

Another non-political word that spiked last week was vomit, following reports that some restaurants in California were charging a vomit fee for customers who over-imbibed at brunch to such an extent that they regurgitated that which they had previously ingurgitated.

Bottomless brunch restaurants in California are charging ‘vomit fees’
— (headline) The Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2023

Vomit, when used in the Californian-brunch sense, may be defined as “to disgorge (the contents of the stomach) through the mouth.” It comes from the Latin vomere, meaning (no surprise) “to vomit.” This Latin word serves at the root of a number of similar words in English, including vomitive (“of, relating to, or causing vomiting”), vomition (“an act or instance of disgorging the contents of the stomach through the mouth”), and, we sincerely regret to inform you, the word revomit (“to vomit forth again”).

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Admiral of the narrow seas’

Our word worth knowing this week is more of a phrase than a word, but it is so applicable at certain kinds of brunch that we have decided to include it anyway: admiral of the narrow seas. This was defined by Francis Grose in his A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue (1796 edition) as “One who from drunkenness vomits into the lap of the person sitting opposite to him.” While this lovely turn of phrase may not be found much today, it was in use for hundreds of years; we have citations going back as far as 1650.

He that having overdrunk himself offers his stomack, in his next fellows Boots or Shooes they call Admirall of the narrow seas”
— Anon., The eighth liberal science or a new-found-art and order of drinking, 1650