The Words of the Week - Aug. 7
Dictionary lookups from the military, disasters, and baseball
‘Evacuate’
Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest led to a rise in lookups for evacuate.
Washington state fires force 60,000 to evacuate
—(headline), The Orlando Sentinel, 4 Aug. 2026
We define the relevant sense of the verb evacuate as “to withdraw from a place in an organized way especially for protection.” The oldest sense of evacuate, dating back to the 15th century and still in use, is “to remove the contents of.” Evacuate traces back to the Latin verb evacuare, “to empty,” from e- + vacuus, “empty.”
‘Testosterone’
Testosterone has been in the news lately, leading to a corresponding spike in lookups for the word testosterone.
In July, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new policy mandating that all military service members over the age of 30 have their testosterone levels screened as part of an effort to create what he called a “High-T Department of War.”
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We define the literal sense of testosterone as “a hormone that is a hydroxy steroid ketone produced especially by the testes or made synthetically and that is responsible for inducing and maintaining male secondary sex characters.” Testosterone is also used figuratively to refer to qualities (such as brawn and aggressiveness) usually associated with males. Testosterone has been used in English since the mid-1930s, and is a borrowing of the German Testosteron.
‘Gruntled’
Something—perhaps sheer curiosity if not a notable usage—caused higher-than-usual lookups for gruntled this week.
Citizens themselves can evaluate the veracity of the information they receive by consuming local news provided by quality, professional journalists, who are bound by a code of ethics to seek out all sides and to vet and verify information from a variety of legitimate sources whether they’re gruntled or disgruntled.
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Gruntled is an adjective used in informal speech and writing, often humorously, to mean “in good humor,” or in other words “happy and contented.” It is a back-formation of disgruntled and has been in use since the turn of the 20th century.
‘Deadline’
Deadline was trending this week, perhaps in connection with Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, which fell on Monday.
With the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline here, contenders are doing last-minute scouring to find the pieces to bolster their postseason pushes.
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The relevant sense of deadline is “a date or time before which something must be done.” This sense of the word did not begin to see use until the early 20th century. The word began its life well before this, with our files indicating it was in use from the early 1860s, with the somewhat harsher definition of “a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot.” Some of the earliest mentions of deadline are preserved in diaries kept by captive soldiers during the Civil War.
‘Launder’
A news story about potential money laundering led to a rise in lookups for the verb launder.
Bank accounts held by President Trump were closed by Capital One in 2021 after it flagged financial activity that had characteristics of money laundering, the bank disclosed in a court filing over the weekend.
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We define the relevant sense of launder as “to transfer (illegally obtained money or investments) through an outside party to conceal the true source.” The oldest sense of launder, dating to the 1600s, is “to wash (something, such as clothing) in water.”
‘Contempt’
Both contempt and in contempt became top lookups on Thursday morning.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment before Congress will be put to the test this week as a Republican-led committee prepares to vote to hold him in contempt and refer the matter to the Justice Department.
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We define the relevant sense of contempt as “willful disobedience to or open disrespect of a court, judge, or legislative body.” Contempt traces back via Anglo-French to the Latin verb contemnere, meaning “to look down on, show no respect for, despise.” The phrase in contempt is defined as “in the state of having been found guilty of the offense of contempt.”
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Jactance’
Chances are this is the first time you’ve encountered the word jactance, but we’re willing to bet that the act to which it refers, “vainglorious boasting,” is much more familiar—so much so that you may find it useful to help ease jactance out of its obscurity. Jactance traces back, via Middle French, to the Latin verb jactare, meaning “to throw, shake, speak out, boast.”
It can scarcely be a matter of surprise that Greville, writing of a speech of Palmerston’s in 1857, characterizes it as full of jactance and bow-wow, though well calculated to draw cheers from a miscellaneous audience. ‘Jactance and bow-wow’—not the most favourable soil for the growth of international confidence and understanding.
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