The Words of the Week - May 23
Dictionary lookups from the White House, Capitol Hill, and Tompkins Square Park
‘Bloodbath’
Bloodbath has been a top lookup this week after President Trump used it several times to describe the war in Ukraine.
“Russia wants to do large scale trade with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree,” Mr. Trump said in a statement on Monday after the call.
—Anatoly Kurmanaev, The New York Times, 20 May 2025
Trump said he asked Russian president Vladimir Putin to meet with him. “I said: ‘When are we going to end this bloodshed, this bloodbath. It’s a bloodbath.’ And I do believe he wants to end it.”
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We define several senses of bloodbath: “a great slaughter,” “a notably fierce, violent, or destructive contest or struggle,” and “a major economic disaster.”
‘Habeas corpus’
Lookups for habeas corpus were high for the second week in a row, this time likely in response to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s response to a question about its meaning during a Senate hearing, which was widely reported.
Noem botches habeas corpus questions at Senate hearing
—Kristi Noem’s ‘Habeas Corpus’ Response to Senators Raises Eyebrows
—DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Confidently Bombs Question about Habeas Corpus in Shocking Hearing Exchange
—Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, bungled questions on Tuesday about the writ of habeas corpus, incorrectly asserting that the legal right of people to challenge their detention by the government was actually the president’s “constitutional right” to deport people. … At a Senate hearing, Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, asked Ms. Noem about the issue. “Secretary Noem,” she asked, “what is habeas corpus?” “Well,” Ms. Noem said, “Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to—” “No,” Ms. Hassan interjected. “Let me stop you, ma’am. Excuse me, that’s incorrect.” Ms. Noem’s answer, which echoed the Trump administration’s expansive view of presidential power, flipped the legal right on its head, turning a constitutional shield against unlawful detention into broad presidential authority.
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The literal meaning of habeas corpus (more about which can be read here) is “you should have the body”—that is, the judge or court should (and must) have any person who is being detained brought forward so that the legality of that person’s detention can be assessed. In United States law, habeas corpus ad subjiciendum (the full name of what habeas corpus typically refers to) is also called “the Great Writ,” and it is not about a person’s guilt or innocence, but about whether custody of that person is lawful under the U.S. Constitution.
‘Contempt’
Contempt saw a spike in lookups on Wednesday morning.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to not let a group of migrants being flown to South Sudan leave the custody of U.S. immigration authorities after saying they appeared to have been deported in violation of a court order. … [U.S. District Judge Brian] Murphy warned that officials could be held in criminal contempt if he found they violated his previous order barring the swift deportation of migrants to countries other than their own before they could raise any concerns that they might face torture or persecution there.
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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.”
‘Apartheid’
Lookups for apartheid were higher than usual following a meeting between U.S. president Donald Trump and South African president Cyril Ramphosa.
Donald Trump ambushed the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, by playing him a video that he falsely claimed proved genocide was being committed against white people under “the opposite of apartheid”. … Trump has long maintained that Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists who ruled South Africa during its decades of racial apartheid, are being persecuted. South Africa rejects the allegation. Murder rates are high in the country and the overwhelming majority of victims are Black.
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We define the relevant sense of apartheid as “a former policy of segregation and political, social, and economic discrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South Africa.” The word comes from Afrikaans, from apart (“apart”) + -heid (“-hood”).
‘Touch grass’
An article in the New York Times about guided nature walks in New York City likely led to this week’s spike in lookups for touch grass.
These New Yorkers Are Touching Grass
—Ms. Burns, a model and native New Yorker, was particularly delighted by the hand-drawn map in Ms. Rose’s zine that identified the location and the species of every tree in the park. “I’ve been wanting to come for weeks and weeks and weeks,” she said. “I’m excited that the spring is happening and she’s really activating the girls to touch some grass—literally—and get outside.”
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Touch grass is an idiomatic phrase that we define as “to participate in normal activities in the real world especially as opposed to online experiences and interactions.” It was added to our dictionary in 2024.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Gyascutus’
Gyascutus is defined in our Unabridged dictionary as “an imaginary large four-legged beast with legs on one side longer than on the other for walking on hillsides.” Described as a “near relative of the Whang-Doodle and a distant cousin of the Snipe,” the gyascutus made its first appearance in American newspapers in the 1840s, and has played a minor role in American folklore since then. In one tale, a pair of the critters clung to each other for support as they wended their way to western territories; in other stories, the lopsided gyascutus would topple off hillsides and be unable to stand up again.
Many of the earliest appearance of gyacutus (pluralized as gyascutuses, if you ever meet more than one) come in accounts of Yankee con men who go about the South, swindling people by charging admission to a showing of this fabled creature. One of the con men dresses as the beast, and at some point in the show (after having loudly commented on its ferocity) his confederate will burst into the room shouting “Ladies and gentlemen! Take care of yourselves!! The gyascutus is loose!!!”, prompting general mayhem, and an end to the viewing.
Agent—We have, madam, six elephants, but these constitute a comparitively unimportant part of the show.—We have living specimens of bipeds and quadrupeds who tramped over the earth not only in the antedeluvian, but also in the pliocene and post miocene period, embracing the megatherium with six legs and two tails; icthyosarus, with legs and three tails; the gyascutus, with no eyes, two noses, and four tails; the plesiosarus, resembling Satan in shape, which spits fire and breathes sulphurous fumes; the whangdoodle, with one eye and five tails, and many other species too dumerous for enumeration. We also have a pious lawyer.
Old Lady—Well I declare.
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