The Words of the Week - Sept. 19
Dictionary lookups from the UN, the White House press pool, and the syllabus
‘Crucible’
Crucible was among the top lookups this week, likely having less to do with a breaking news story than, perhaps, a back-to-school reading assignment. Still, the word does appear regularly in printed news.
On Aug. 8, I received an alert that there was a water main break in the vicinity of Hinchliffe Stadium. When I arrived on the scene a little less than an hour after being notified, I saw for myself the severity of the situation and started assessing how our city should respond. … Our emergency management coordinator … demonstrated remarkable leadership skills during this crucible.
—Andre Sayegh, The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), 14 Sept. 2025
Unless you’re studying Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in school, it may not be crucial to learn the story behind crucible, but it can’t hurt! Crucible looks like it should be closely related to the Latin combining form cruc- (“cross”); however, unlike crucial, it isn’t. It was forged instead from the Medieval Latin crucibulum, a noun for an earthen pot used to melt metals, and in English it first referred to a vessel made of a very heat-resistant material (such as porcelain) used for melting a substance that requires a high degree of heat. It’s possible that the resemblance between cruc- and crucible encouraged people to start using crucible to mean “a severe trial,” as that sense is synonymous with one meaning of cross, but the idea of simmering in a literal crucible also sounds plenty severe. The newest sense of crucible (“a situation in which great changes take place,” as in “forged in the crucible of war”) recalls the fire and heat required to transform some solids into liquids.
‘Empathy’
Empathy has been a top lookup since last week’s fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
We define empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another,” as well as the capacity for this action. The word is frequently looked up to contrast its meaning with that of sympathy. In short, sympathy refers to a feeling of sincere concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful, while empathy refers to the act of sharing in the person’s emotional experience.
‘Hate speech’
Hate speech has also been in the news lately, resulting in more lookups than usual.
President Trump on Tuesday threatened to “go after” ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl as part of a White House crackdown on what it calls hate speech after the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. After Karl asked Trump a pointed question about the line between “hate speech” and “free speech”—in reference to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s vow to crack down on the former—the president suggested the Justice Department might take down the veteran White House reporter over his critical stance toward the administration. “She’d probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly,” Trump said as he prepared to travel on a state visit to the United Kingdom. “It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart.”
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Hate speech is defined in our legal dictionary as “speech that is intended to insult, offend, or intimidate a person because of some trait (such as race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability).”
‘Genocide’
Lookups for genocide rose this week following a report by a United Nations commission.
A UN commission has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and massive destruction, and has called on member countries to punish those responsible for it. The United Nations independent international commission of inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the UN, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur”, said its head, Navi Pillay.
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We define genocide as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.”
‘Preempt’
Preempt was a top lookup on Thursday night after a television network announced it would preempt the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live following pressure by the FCC.
Following pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air Wednesday over remarks he made following the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. Kimmel, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, touched on Kirk’s shooter in his monologue Monday night, saying, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” Brendan Carr, chair of the FCC, called Kimmel’s remarks “the sickest conduct possible” in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson Wednesday afternoon. Carr also threatened to yank ABC’s broadcast license from parent company Disney. … Hours later, two companies that own numerous local TV stations—Nexstar and Sinclair—announced they would preempt Kimmel’s show on their stations, forcing ABC’s hand.
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We define several senses of the verb preempt, including “to prevent from happening or taking place,” “to replace with something considered to be of greater value or priority,” and “to seize upon to the exclusion of others; take for oneself.”
‘Antifa’
Lookups for antifa spiked Thursday night after President Trump announced that he would declare antifa a “major terrorist organization.”
Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning activist groups and is not a single entity. These are groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations. It is unclear how the administration would label what is in effect a decentralized movement as a terrorist organization, and the White House did not immediately offer more details. … Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the state department’s list of foreign terror organizations.
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The noun antifa can refer to a person or group actively opposing fascism or to an anti-fascist movement. More on the word (which was added to our dictionary in 2017) and its history can be found here.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Lulu’
Lulu (not to be confused with delulu) is, like other quaint words for remarkable or wonderful things such as corker and jim-dandy, comfortable in phrases like “a real lulu” and “a lulu of a ____.” Earliest known print evidence of the word dates to the 1880s. Its origin is not known, but one theory is that it’s from the name Lulu, a nickname for “Louise”—perhaps a particular Louise who was quite a lulu.
There usually are few news issues that interest me enough to comment on them, but last week was a lulu.
— Dianna French, The Williams Lake (British Columbia) Tribune Advisor, 19 June 2025
