The Words of the Week - July 7

‘Thread’

Thread spiked in lookups, after a social-media competitor to Twitter launched with the plural form of this word as its name.

What you need to know about Threads, Instagram’s new Twitter competitor
— NBC News (headline), 5 July 2023

We define the presumably relevant sense of thread as “a series of electronic messages (as on a message board or social media website) following a single topic or in response to a single message.” The word has been in English use since before the 12th century, initially with the meaning of “a filament, a group of filaments twisted together, or a filamentous length formed by spinning and twisting short textile fibers into a continuous strand.”

‘Blackface’

Blackface was also in the news a good deal, after a well-known YouTube personality was said to have performed in this manner.

YouTuber and performer Colleen Ballinger, best known as the creator of Miranda Sings, is the target of new criticism over a years-old video in which she sings Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” while wearing makeup that some observers have perceived as blackface.
— Todd Spangler, Variety, 5 July 2023

We define blackface as “black makeup worn (as by a performer in a minstrel show) in a caricature of the appearance of a black person,” and also as “a performer wearing such makeup.” This definition is accompanied by a usage note: “The wearing of blackface by white performers was, from the early 19th through the mid-20th centuries, a prominent feature of minstrel shows and similar forms of entertainment featuring exaggerated and inaccurate caricatures of black people. Its modern occurrence in imitation of such performers is considered deeply offensive.” Although the practice of blackface extends back to the early 19th century, our earliest citations for the term itself occur in the 1840s.

The Ethiopian mania still rages in the metropolis. Not a concert-room or a theatre has been opened without some gentleman, with a wooly wig, black face, and a banjo, or some other instrument, being introduced during the entertainment. — Spirit of the Times (New York, NY), 12 June 1847

‘Sphere’

Sphere also spiked in lookups, after a video screen of some enormity was created in this shape in Las Vegas.

Home to the tallest Ferris wheel in the US and the strongest light beam on earth, Las Vegas loves to break records. The MSG sphere is just the latest light pollution generating attraction for Sin City to flex.
— Anthony Robledo, USA Today, 5 July 2023

A sphere is, in its most commonly encountered sense, defined as “a round object, a globe” (the word may be traced to the Greek sphaira, “ball”). In addition to this, sphere has a number of other meanings, some of which are rather figurative, such as “social order or rank,” or “an area or range over or within which someone or something acts, exists, or has influence or significance.”

‘Cocaine’

Cocaine had a busy week, after a small bag of this was found in the White House.

The Secret Service is looking to find out who brought a baggie of cocaine that was discovered on Sunday evening into a guest lobby of the West Wing of the White House, an agency spokesman said on Wednesday.
— Katie Rogers, The New York Times, 5 July 2023

If you find yourself having discussions with friends, family, or coworkers about cocaine, and would like to sound like an expert (but not the wrong kind of expert) on this subject you may inform all and sundry that cocaine is “a bitter crystalline alkaloid C17H21NO4 obtained from coca leaves that is used especially in the form of its hydrochloride medically as a topical anesthetic and illicitly for its euphoric effects and that may result in a compulsive psychological need.”

Words Worth Knowing: ‘Sudoriferous’

This week’s word worth knowing is sudoriferous, which is defined as “producing or conveying sweat.” As in, ‘the weather is a bit too sudoriferous for my liking.’