The Words of the Week - Apr. 3
Dictionary lookups from holidays, lunar missions, and the Supreme Court
‘Domicile’
The word domicile was the subject of much discussion during arguments before the Supreme Court on birthright citizenship, making it a top lookup of the week.
One crucial question for the justices was the meaning of the word “domicile,” which appears multiple times in the 1898 ruling. Key to the Trump administration argument to limit birthright citizenship is its view that Wong Kim Ark's parents, although not citizens, were “domiciled” in the United States—that is to say, permanent residents. The administration says that makes Wong different from the children of immigrants in the United States illegally or temporary residents. The ACLU has argued that birthright citizenship applies to nearly all babies born on US soil and does not hinge on the notion of “domicile.” At least five of the justices posed questions about the references to the word “domicile” in the Wong Kim Ark ruling.
—Abbie VanSickle, The New York Times, 1 Apr. 2026
We define the verb domicile as a legal term meaning “to establish in or provide with a domicile,” with the relevant legal sense of the noun domicile referring to “a person’s fixed, permanent, and principal home for legal purposes.” In the eyes of the law, a domicile is the address from which one registers to vote, licenses a car, and pays income tax. For example, wealthy people may have several homes in which they live at different times of the year, but only one of their homes can be their official domicile for all legal purposes. The word traces back through Middle English and Middle French to the Latin word domus, meaning “home.”
‘Artemis’
NASA’s launch of Artemis II sent lookups for Artemis into the stratosphere on Wednesday.
NASA’s Artemis II Moon mission successfully launched from Florida's John F. Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday afternoon at 6:35pm ET. … Artemis II’s planned crewed lunar flyby is set to mark the closest humanity has come to the Moon since the Apollo days.
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Artemis is the name of a Greek moon goddess often portrayed as a virgin huntress. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Among the rural populace, Artemis was the favorite goddess. Her character and function varied greatly from place to place, but behind all forms lay the goddess of wild nature, who danced, usually accompanied by nymphs, in mountains, forests, and marshes.
‘Godspeed’
Godspeed was also trending in connection with the Artemis II mission.
Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said: “Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, on this historic mission you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation.” “Good luck, godspeed, Artemis II. Let’s go,” she added.
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We define Godspeed as a formal and old-fashioned way to wish success to someone who is leaving especially on a journey. Speed comes from the Old English spēd, which referred to prosperity, good fortune, and success. This sense of speed lives on in Godspeed, which comes from the Middle English phrase God spede you (meaning “God prosper you”) and is now used to wish someone a prosperous journey. To get even more up to speed on speed, slowly savor this article.
‘Seder’
The Jewish holiday of Passover began on Wednesday evening, leading to a rise in lookups for seder.
The Seder plate includes foods like matzah (unleavened bread), bitter herbs, parsley dipped in saltwater and a sweet paste called charoset, which act as a visual representation of the Israelites’ enslavement and liberation from Egypt. The meal is meant to pass down the communal memory of a foundational Jewish story. Jewish communities typically hold a Seder on the first night of Passover after sundown.
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We define seder, often capitalized Seder, as “a Jewish home or community service including a ceremonial dinner held on the first or first and second evenings of the Passover in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt.” Order and ritual are very important in the seder—so important that they are even reflected in its name: the English word seder is a transliteration of the Hebrew word sēdher, meaning “order.” The courses in the meal, as well as blessings, prayers, stories, and songs, are recorded in the Haggadah, a book that lays out the order of the Passover feast and recounts the story of Exodus.
‘Maundy’
Lookups for maundy were high this week in connection with Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter observed in commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist.
As we approach the close of Lent with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, it is a perfect time for a chowder sale.
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We define the relevant sense of the noun maundy in our Unabridged dictionary as “a ceremony of washing the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday.” Maundy comes from the Anglo-French word mandet, which in turn comes from the Latin mandatum, meaning “command” (the ancestor also of familiar English words including mandate and mandatory).
‘Decimate’
A televised address by President Trump about the war in Iran led to increased lookups for decimate.
While Trump again claimed “Iran has been essentially decimated” and that efforts by other nations to secure the Strait of Hormuz “should be easy,” data from independent observers does not support this claim. … He also said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “is being decimated as we speak.”
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Decimate is a word that often raises hackles, at least those belonging to a small but committed group of logophiles who feel that it is commonly misused. The issue that they have with the decline and fall of the word decimate is that once upon a time in ancient Rome it had a very singular meaning: “to select by lot and kill every tenth man of a military unit.” However, many words in English descended from Latin have changed and/or expanded their meanings in their travels. Was the “to kill every tenth man” meaning the original use of decimate in English? Yes, but not by much. It took only a few decades for decimate to acquire its broader, familiar meaning of “to severely damage or destroy,” which has been employed steadily since the 17th century.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Another-guess’
When it comes to words used to describe things that are different, another-guess is, well, another-guess. We define another-guess in our Unabridged dictionary as an archaic word meaning “of another sort.”
“The captain, his name was Gorton, was another guess sort of man, and a fine fellow to look at, dark and red, with strong brown hair, and a big body. …”
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Another-guess, in turn, is an alteration of another, even more archaic word, anothergates, with the same meaning.
… noe, hee is anothergates creature: the disdainfull snortings which hee sends out of his nostrils in his pride, and courage are terrifying …
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