The Words of the Week - Aug. 8
Dictionary lookups from Texas, Major League Baseball, and bats
‘Gerrymander’
Lookups for gerrymander and gerrymandering were both high this week amid news from Texas concerning the state’s congressional redistricting plan.
Chief Justice John Roberts enabled Texas’ gambit to gerrymander the state for the GOP
—(headline), CNN, 4 Aug. 2025
On their first full day in Illinois and other northern states, Texas House Democrats who fled their home state to block a Republican-led midterm congressional redistricting plan on Monday encouraged leaders in Democratic states to actively look at redrawing their own boundaries and abandon the national party’s long-standing support for politically fair maps to counter partisan gerrymandering.
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The verb gerrymander means “to divide or arrange a territorial unit into election districts in a way that gives one political party advantage,” and thus gerrymandering is the practice of dividing or arranging a territorial unit into election districts in a way that gives one party an unfair advantage in elections. Elbridge Gerry was a respected politician in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He signed the Declaration of Independence, served as governor of Massachusetts (1810-1811), and was elected vice president under James Madison. While governor, he tried to change the shape of voting districts to help members of his political party get elected. His system resulted in some very oddly shaped districts, including one (Gerry’s home district) that looked a little like a newt. Upon seeing a map of the bizarre regional divisions, a member of the opposing party drew feet, wings, and a head on Gerry’s district and said “That will do for a salamander!” Another member called out “Gerrymander!” Thus gerrymander became a term for such political schemes.
‘Abscond’
Abscond was also a top lookup in relation to the Texas gerrymandering news.
Texas Democrats prevented their state’s House of Representatives from moving forward Monday, at least for now, with a redrawn congressional map sought by President Donald Trump to shore up Republicans’ 2026 midterm prospects as his political standing falters. … [Governor Greg] Abbott insisted ahead of Monday’s scheduled session that lawmakers “absconded” in violation of their sworn duties to the state.
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Abscond is a formal verb meaning “to depart secretly and hide oneself.” It comes from the Latin word abscondere, meaning “to conceal, hide.”
‘Quorum’
The news out of Texas also led more people than usual to look up the entry for quorum.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows issued civil arrest warrants Monday for the 50-plus Democrats who fled Texas to block a vote on a plan to boost the GOP’s numbers in Congress by redistricting. … The warrants allow law enforcement officers to compel the return of absent members found to be in Texas, but they are not subject to criminal arrest for breaking quorum. The warrants don't authorize officers to go out of state to bring back the dozens of Democrats who decamped to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to deny the House the quorum it needs to conduct business.
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Quorum, which can be pluralized as quorums or quora, comes directly from the Latin word quorum, which translates as “of whom.” At one time, this Latin quorum was used in the wording of the commissions granting power to justices of the peace in England. Later, when it became an English noun, quorum initially referred to the number of justices of the peace who had to be present to constitute a legally sufficient bench. That sense is now rare, and today quorum is used to refer to the minimum number of people required to be present at a meeting in order for official business to take place. It can also be used more broadly to mean simply “a select group.”
‘Umpire’
Lookups for umpire were higher than usual this week, following news out of Major League Baseball.
Jen Pawol, a minor-league umpire since 2016, is set to make her major-league debut on Saturday, making her the first female umpire in regular-season MLB history. Pawol is being called up for the Miami Marlins-Atlanta Braves doubleheader on Saturday, when she will work the bases for those two games. She is slated to be behind the plate for Sunday’s series finale.
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We define the relevant sense of the noun umpire as “an official in a sport who rules on plays.” It’s ironic that the word for a person who literally calls balls and strikes is called by a name created by a linguistic foul. The original word in English was noumpere, which was a borrowing of the Anglo-French term nompere. The -pere of nompere is a descendant of the Latin word par (“equal”) that is the root of words like peer, pair, and, of course, par. Noumpere became the form used in English for “one without equal” or “peerless,” but frequent references to “a noumpere” ended up becoming references to “an oumpere,” which became the modern word umpire.
‘Constitution’
Lookups for constitution spiked after parts of the U.S. Constitution went missing from a government website, which was ultimately blamed on a coding error, and in relation to President Trump’s social media post about conducting a new census.
Significant parts of the Constitution were quietly removed from the Congress website but have since been restored. Multiple outlets reported Wednesday Sections 9 and 10, and a large chunk of Section 8, had vanished from the website’s annotated version. Section 8 discusses the powers the Constitution gives Congress and Section 9 discusses the powers it denies to the legislative body. Section 10 discusses the powers the Constitution denies to the states. Notably, Section 9 mentions the Writ of Habeas Corpus, which protects Americans from unlawful detention. … In May, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller told reporters the Trump administration is “looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus for migrants under claims of an “invasion.”
—President Trump said he wants a new census that would not count people present in the country illegally. The order clashes with the Constitution and would likely face many legal challenges.
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We define multiple senses of constitution, including “the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it” and “a written instrument embodying the rules of a political or social organization.” Among other things, constitution can also refer to the physical makeup of an individual, the mode in which a state or society is organized, or an established law or custom.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Vespertilian’
Vespertilian describes something that is part of, relating to, or resembling a bat (the flying mammal). It comes from the Latin vespertilio meaning “bat,” which in turn comes from vesper, meaning “evening” or “evening star.”
The anhingas ogle the gorgeous sky
over Shark River and as they gaze
extend vespertilian
wings, meticulous and moist.
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