The Words of the Week - May 8
Dictionary lookups from war, holidays, and Alcatraz
‘Cinco de Mayo’
Tuesday was Cinco de Mayo (not to be confused with Mexican Independence Day, as it sometimes is), prompting more lookups for Cinco de Mayo, as it does each May.
Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in Texas as a way to honor the rich cultural heritage of people of Mexican descent, particularly Tejanos, who have deep historical roots in the state, according to the Texas State Historical Association. After the Texas Revolution, Tejanos began holding fiestas patrias in the 1820s to reinforce their ties to Mexico and celebrate their unique bicultural identity.
—Alexis Simmerman, The Austin American-Statesman, 5 May 2026
Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican and Mexican-American celebration held on May 5 in commemoration of the Mexican victory over the French at Puebla in 1862.
‘Quagmire’
Lookups for quagmire have been consistently high for the past two weeks.
As the U.S. and Iran exchange fire in the strait, jeopardizing the fragile ceasefire, Tehran warned that the former’s Project Freedom initiative granting safe passage to oil ships threatened to become “Project Deadlock” and a new “quagmire” for their enemy, seizing on a word that infuriated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week.
—
We define a figurative sense of quagmire as a synonym of predicament meaning “a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position.” Used literally, the word refers to soft miry land that shakes or yields underfoot. Quagmire, which has been in use since the 16th century, is a combination of the word mire (“wet spongy earth (as of a bog or marsh)”) and quag, a synonym of “bog” and “marsh.” While mire has been traced back to the Old Norse word mȳrr, the origins of quag are unknown.
‘Hantavirus’
An outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship led to a rise in lookups for hantavirus.
A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others. The germ, called hantavirus, has been confirmed in one of the cases.
—
Hantavirus refers to any of a family (Hantaviridae and especially genus Orthohantavirus) of bunyaviruses transmitted especially by rodent feces and urine and including viruses causing serious pulmonary disease or hemorrhagic fevers marked by renal necrosis. The word combines hanta- (from Hantaan, a river in South Korea near where rodents carrying the virus were collected in the mid-1970s) and virus.
‘Gala’
This year’s Met Gala prompted a spike in lookups for gala.
The 2026 Met Gala is about to start, and the fashion world is buzzing with anticipation for the biggest red carpet of the year. As global A-listers arrive to the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in N.Y.C., it’s time for pop-culture enthusiasts to learn how to follow along at home.
—
The word gala refers to a festive celebration and especially a public entertainment marking a special occasion. The English word was borrowed from French, which had borrowed it from Spanish, which had gotten its gala from the Middle French word gale meaning “festivity, pleasure.”
‘Coyote’
An adventurous coyote made the news, and consequently the word coyote swam up the lookups chart.
A lone coyote stunned biologists and others when it paddled its way to remote Alcatraz Island earlier this year, a former federal prison in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by swift, choppy waters notorious for thwarting prisoners’ escapes.
—
Coyote refers to a buff-gray to reddish-gray swift carnivorous mammal (Canis latrans) of North America that is closely related to but smaller than the wolf, has a narrow pointed muzzle and triangular ears, hunts singly or in small groups, and is known for its various distinctive vocalizations (such as barks, yips, and howls).
The word coyote came to English through Mexican Spanish from the Nahuatl word coyōtl in the mid-1700s. Prior to that time, many Europeans simply called the native North American canines wolves, which wasn’t true to fact then but has become more so. While western coyotes are a distinct species and smaller than wolves, they hybridized with wolves as they moved east, likely in the Great Lakes region in the 1930s and 40s. Recent studies have shown that eastern coyotes are hybrids of coyotes, wolves, and domestic dogs.
‘Consigliere’
A prominent use of consigliere on CBS’s “The Late Show” led to a rise in lookups for the word.
Former President Obama on Tuesday warned against allowing the attorney general to become the president’s “consigliere,” emphasizing the need for the nation’s top prosecutor to remain independent of political influence.
—
Consigliere is used to refer to both a person who serves as an adviser or counselor to the leader of a criminal organization and to someone (such as a powerful political consultant) likened in some way to such an adviser. The word consigliere comes from Italian and has been a part of English since the 17th century; it was originally used of someone who served on a council in Italy. Currently, it most commonly refers to advisers to the Mafia—a use that first appeared in English in a document from a 1963 session of the U.S. Senate.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Canaille’
For a creature said to be man’s best friend, the dog doesn’t get a whole lot of respect in the English language. Something that has “gone to the dogs,” for example, has gone to ruin, and the Britishism dog’s breakfast means a confused mess of something. The word canaille, which debuted in English in the 17th century and is synonymous with riffraff and rabble, is yet another, coming via French from Italian canaglia, and ultimately from canis, the Latin word for “dog.” Canis, of course, is also the source of canine, which as a noun refers to a dog (as well as a conical pointed tooth), and as an adjective means “of or relating to dogs or to the family to which they belong.”
“Milady,” Ed said to Ellen. “Sir,” Ellen answered.” Methinks we are descending tonight to mingle with the canaille,” Ed said. “But will it be amusing, Sir Hellfire?” Ellen asked. “Lady Ellen, take caution, pray take caution, and do not allow the hoi polloi to tread upon thy skirts. And above all, pray take guard lest it not breathe foul breaths into thy fair face, corrupting thy noble nostrils. And now, milady, pray pardon me because methinks that I must give my nose a loud and noble lordly sneeze.”
—
