The Words of the Week - Sept. 12
Dictionary lookups from a scandal, Utah, and Brazil
‘Enigma’
Lookups for enigma spiked early this week following reporting on a birthday card written to child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which Donald Trump disputes was penned by him.
A lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, that appears to have been signed by Donald Trump, has resurfaced with seemingly cryptic phrases linked to a children’s book and the president’s own language. The 2003 note, released Monday by Democrats on the Oversight Committee, reignited a controversy that has dogged the White House for months. … The birthday message continues with, ‘Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?’ and ends with, ‘A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret.’ Both phrases echo Trump’s familiar style, such as in his 1990 book, he used ‘enigma’ to describe Don King and Mike Tyson, and again in 2004 when referring to Dan Rather. He has also repeatedly used the phrase ‘a wonderful thing’ in speeches and social-media posts.
—Stacy Liberatore, The Daily Mail (United Kingdom), 8 Sept. 2025
We define three senses of enigma, which comes from the Greek verb ainissesthai, meaning “to speak in riddles”: “something hard to understand or explain,” “an inscrutable or mysterious person,” and “an obscure speech or writing.”
‘Gamine’
Gamine was also trending on account of the birthday card, as many social media users noted that it is an anagram of enigma.
Enigma is an anagram for Gamine…
—Reminder that “enigmas” is an anagram of “gamines”
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Gamine was first used in English in the mid-1800s to refer to a tough street girl. It later gained a second meaning, “a small playfully mischievous girl.”
‘Assassination’
The fatal shooting of a prominent conservative activist led to high lookups for assassination.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed Wednesday at a Utah college event in what the governor called a political assassination carried out from a rooftop.
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We define the relevant sense of assassination as “murder by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons; the act or an instance of assassinating someone (such as a prominent political leader).” Assassination, and its close relations assassin and assassinate, come from the Medieval Latin word assassinus, which itself can be traced to the Arabic ḥashshāsh. This Arabic word means “worthless person,” or, more literally, “hashish user.”
‘Rhetoric’
Rhetoric also became a top lookup in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that rhetoric from the “radical left” contributed to the shooting death of his close ally Charlie Kirk …
—“We saw the shootings, the killings in Minnesota. We’ve seen other political violence occur in other states. And I would just say it’s got to stop. And I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country,” [Illinois governor JB] Pritzker said. “I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it.”
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We define several senses of rhetoric, including “skill in the effective use of speech,” “the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion,” “verbal communication,” and “insincere or grandiloquent language.” Rhetoric traces all the way through Middle English, Anglo-French, and Latin to the Greek verb eirein, meaning “to say, speak.”
‘Coup’
Coup was looked up more often than usual following news of the conviction of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by a Supreme Court majority on Thursday of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created. … Three judges so far have voted to convict the former president of five crimes: taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to violently abolish democracy, organizing a coup, and damaging government property and protected cultural assets.
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Coup is a shortening of coup d’etat, itself defined as “a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially, the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group.” Coup d’etat is a French expression that literally means “stroke of state,” with “stroke” meaning “knock” or “blow.”
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Lemma’
A lemma is a term or phrase that is being defined or explained. In other words, any time you look up something in this here dictionary, you type in a lemma. The plural of lemma is either the reasonable lemmas or the arcane lemmata. TBH, that second one doesn’t get used much around this dictionary joint. The Greek word lēmma means “thing taken; assumption”; it’s the source of lemma and probably the ultimate source of dilemma, too.
