The Words of the Week - 7/23/2021

’Suborbital’ & ‘Astronaut’

A decent number of space-related words trended in lookups this week, after a less-decent number of billionaires flew up into, or close to, outer space.

Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, soared some 66.5 miles (107 km) above the Texas desert aboard his company Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle on Tuesday and returned safely to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that helps usher in a new era of space tourism.
— Eric Johnson, Reuters, 20 Jul. 2021

There was some spirited discussion regarding some words, and an apparent desire for precise meaning. Where does outer space begin? Must a person travel to there to be called an astronaut? Is corporate tax rate a four-letter word?

Who’s an astronaut? FAA weighs in on a murky issue for suborbital space travelers
— (headline) Yahoo! Finance, 21 Jul. 2021

Suborbital is "being or involving less than one orbit (as of the earth or moon)." We define astronaut as “a person who travels beyond the earth's atmosphere,” but also have “a trainee for spaceflight” as a definition. Similarly, we offer a specific definition for outer space ("space immediately outside the earth's atmosphere”) and a broad one as well (“interplanetary or interstellar space”). It should be noted that Merriam-Webster’s job is to define words as they are currently used; we do not decide if you or anyone else is a real astronaut. The reason we do not give a precise number for the distance one must travel away from earth before entering outer space is that this distance varies from country to country, from agency to agency, and, one now presumes, from billionaire to billionaire.

Horror, baseball, outer space... this week has it all.

’HIPAA’

HIPAA also trended in lookups, after a member of Congress invoked the acronym in her averment that she should not be questioned about her vaccination status.

Here's the question, asked of Greene by a reporter during a press availability in her office: "Have you yourself gotten vaccinated?" And now for her answer: "Your first question is a violation of my HIPAA rights. You see with HIPAA rights we don't have to reveal our medical records and that also includes our vaccine records.”
— Chris Cillizza, CNN, 21 Jul. 2021

HIPAA (which is frequently miswritten as HIPPA) stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Enacted in 1996, the act was an attempt to, among other things, make healthcare simpler. While there are many ways in which a person or entity could violate someone’s HIPAA rights, a reporter asking a member of Congress about their vaccination status is widely considered to not be among them.

’Altar call’

Altar call had a rare moment atop our searches this week, after president Biden used the term in reference to a news network.

President Biden said it is good that Fox News anchors are now urging viewers to get vaccinated while poking fun at hosts for changing their rhetoric Wednesday. "One of those other networks — they’re not a big fan of mine, one you talk about a lot — but if you notice, as they say in the southern part of my state, they’ve had an altar call, some of those guys,” Biden, invoking the religious act of stepping forward to make a spiritual commitment, said during a CNN town hall.
— Alex Gangitano, The Hill, 21 Jul. 2021

We define altar call as “an appeal by an evangelist to worshippers to come forward to signify their decision to commit their lives to Christ.” Call, as a noun, has a number of possible meanings relating to summoning and requesting, such as “a request or command to come or assemble,” “the attraction or appeal of a particular activity, condition, or place,” and “an instrument used for calling.” Altar call is but one of many compound nouns created with call: mess call, booty call, curtain call, and trumpet call are but a few of the specimens.

’Nope’

Nope spiked in lookups late in the week, following the release of the poster for an upcoming film of this name, directed by Jordan Peele.

‘Nope’: Jordan Peele Teases His Brand New Horror Movie With Official Poster Art! https://t.co/m3GWspEdTh

— Bloody Disgusting (@BDisgusting) July 22, 2021

Nope is commonly defined as synonymous with the adverb no. While this is true, it can be misleading, as there are some senses of no which may be replaced with nope, and others which may not. When using no in such senses as “not so —used to express negation, dissent, denial, or refusal in answer to a question or request” or “an interjection to express surprise, doubt, or incredulity” nope may be substituted (although it is an informal version of no). In other senses, such as when no is used in combination with a verb to form a compound adjective (‘a no-iron shirt’) one would not substitute nope. The word, which was formed by alteration from no, has been in use since the late 19th century.

”Did you ever try to train a miss?” Asked the pedagogue of Farmer Furrow, with a view of perpetrating a prehistoric pun. “Nope,” said the wily old granger, with a twinkle in his eye,”but I’ve missed a train without trying.”
— The Times-Picauyune (New Orleans, LA), 13 Dec. 1884

’Guardian’

Guardian also saw a late spike in lookups this week, as the professional baseball team in Cleveland had at last chosen a new name.

Our Antedating of the Week

Our antedating of the week is crybaby, defined as “one who cries or complains easily or often.” Our previous earliest record of use had been from 1851, but recent findings show that we have had crybabies since at least 1824.

’Indeed!’ exclaimed one of the commissioners, ‘can that old cry-baby care so much about living a few days more? If he suffers, he ought rather to rejoice at the prospect of his sufferings being thus so soon ended!’
— The Literary Gazette (London, Eng.), 24 Apr. 1824