The Words of the Week - Jan. 2
Dictionary lookups from holidays, New York City, and Switzerland
‘Boxing Day’
Boxing Day, which falls yearly on December 26, prompted a rise in lookups for Boxing Day.
Boxing Day is mentioned in Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, about 1835, as a day which brought much joy to employees. In those days, as 26th December is the feast of St Stephen the charitable, the Clergy would hand out alms boxes to the poor. All well and good, but a far cry from today’s frenzy of mass consumption which takes place in Boxing Day sales.
—Bruce Morris (letter to the editor), The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand), 30 Dec. 2025
If you happen to be in the UK or in a Commonwealth nation, then the Christmas season isn’t complete without Boxing Day.
This holiday, usually celebrated on December 26, has nothing to do with the sport, nor with recycling all the wrapping paper from the Christmas presents. On Boxing Day, Christmas boxes are traditionally given to postal workers and other service workers. The holiday has been around since the 1600s: churches would put out boxes for donations for the poor, and servants (who usually got the day after Christmas off to spend with their own families) were often given a box of food and gifts to take home. Samuel Pepys complains of the expense of these boxes in a 1668 diary entry, though the name of the holiday itself dates to the 1700s:
Chrismass [sic] Gambols, representing the Humours of Christmas and Boxing Day, in two Plates neatly Engrav'd.
— General Advertiser, 25 Dec. 1747
Traditionally, Boxing Day is associated with fox hunting in the UK, though the sport was banned in 2004. Nowadays, more people turn out for a different sort of hunt: Boxing Day sales are the new national sport.
‘Epiphany’
With the Christian holiday of Epiphany approaching on January 6, lookups for the word epiphany have been higher than usual.
The Christmas season is soon to officially conclude with the Jan. 6 feast of the Epiphany. As revealed in the gospel of Matthew, three gentile magi traveling from the east pursued a celestial star, arrived at the manger where the holy family was sheltered and presented the newborn Jesus with their offerings.
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When capitalized, epiphany refers to a Christian festival held on January 6 in commemoration of the coming of the Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or in the Eastern Church in commemoration of the baptism of Christ. In secular and lower-case contexts, epiphany is commonly used to mean “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure,” as in “a moment of epiphany.”
‘New Year’s resolution’
New Year’s resolution spiked in lookups this week, as it tends to do this time of the year.
Taking my New Year’s resolution energy to the gym all week.
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We define New Year’s resolution as “a promise to do something differently in the new year.” By itself, resolution refers to a promise to yourself that you will make a serious effort to do something that you should do. Our citations show evidence of people from the middle of the 17th century using the word resolution in early January to refer to things they were pledging to change in the coming year.
‘Hoe’
Hoe, a variant spelling of the disparaging and offensive term ho was used by a high-ranking government official this week, which led more people than usual to look the word up.
Harmeet Dhillon, whom President Donald Trump appointed last year as an assistant attorney general for civil rights, unleashed on conservatives in a string of NSFW social media posts on Sunday, using two separate X accounts. … “If you think you are ‘keeping the pressure on’ or ‘winning’ by spreading bulls--t attacks on @realdonaldtrump’s hand-picked cabinet, you are NOT,” she wrote. “You are earning money to spread misinformation. You are hoes. Learn an honest profession!”
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We define two senses of ho. One refers to a sex worker, while the other refers to someone who is sexually promiscuous. As neither seems to make sense in the context of these posts made by an assistant attorney general of civil rights, it may be more likely that Dhillon was using it in a way similar to an extended sense of the word whore (which ho is short for) meaning “a mercenary or unscrupulous person; a person who is willing to compromise their integrity or principles for personal gain or in pursuit of something.”
‘Collectivism’
Newly elected New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani used the word collectivism in his inaugural address, which led to the word becoming one of the week’s top lookups.
The public, Mamdani said, has come to expect “mediocrity from those who serve the public.” “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” Mamdani said.
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We define the relevant sense of collectivism as “emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity.” Collectivism can also refer to a political or economic theory advocating collective control especially over production and distribution, or a system marked by such control.
‘Flashover’
A deadly fire in Switzerland led to a rise in lookups for flashover.
The cause of the fire that left dozens dead at a bar in Switzerland in the early hours of Thursday is still under investigation. But the Swiss authorities have said that it’s likely that the explosion reported from the site was caused by a flashover.
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We define the relevant sense of flashover as “the sudden spread of flame over an area when it becomes heated to the flash point.”
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Tonitruous’
Our Unabridged dictionary defines the adjective tonitruous as a synonym of thundering, which itself is defined as “awesomely great, intense, or unusual.” Thundering gets a lot of use in such constructions as “a thundering success,” “thundering applause,” and even “thundering silence.” Tonitruous? Not so much, but appropriately enough, its etymology traces back to the Latin tonitruum, which both means “thunder” and shares an earlier ancestor with the Old English predecessor of thunder, thunor.
His Delivery had something Singular in it. He spoke with a Grave and Wise Deliberation : But on some Subjects, his Voice would rise for the more Emphatical Clauses, as the Discourse went on: and anon come on with such a Tonitruous Cogency, that the Hearers would be struck with an Awe like what would be Produced on the Fall of Thunderbolts …
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