This Week in Words: November 12-November 17, 2017

Adam C.
No time to scour the headlines or watch the news? No problem! We’ve rounded up the top words heard, read, debated, and discussed this week. Some weeks are the calm before the storm, and some weeks are the storm itself. In both events and vocabulary used to describe them, this was a stormy week. The week began as the earth itself was volatile, with a 7.3 earthquake on the Iran-Iraq border. President Trump franticallyassailed critics and was adamant in his insistence that the Republican Tax Plan include a repeal of the Obamacare insurance mandate. The President also intervened on behalf of some college students in trouble in China. After nearly 40 years of stifling rule by Robert Mugabe, the leader of Zimbabwe was removed from power this week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was swift to deny that he lied to Congress, and this latest iteration of Taylor Swift, Pop Star, is already a big hit. Take a look back at the week that was, vocabulary style.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. frantic
    marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion
    Iranians dug through rubble in a frantic search for survivors on Monday, after a powerful earthquake struck near the Iraqi border, killing more than 400 people and injuring thousands of others, officials said. - The New York Times ( November 13, 2017)
    This week a powerful earthquake rocked the Iran-Iraq border. More than 400 people were killed, with many more injured and/or left with less-than-adequate shelter. The quake measured 7.3 on the Richter Scale.
  2. assail
    attack someone physically or emotionally
    President Trump, who has repeatedly assailed pharmaceutical companies for the high cost of prescription medications in the United States, nominated on Monday a former executive of one of the nation’s largest drug companies to be secretary of health and human services, which has responsibility for regulating the pharmaceutical industry. - The New York Times (November 13, 2017)
    President Trump nominated Alex Azar to be Secretary of Health and Human Services to replace Tom Price, who resigned because of a scandal involving private jet use. Azar has worked both in government and at pharmaceutical companies, and skeptics have asked if Azar will be able or willing to stand up to his old colleagues when it comes to issues of drug availability and pricing. Azar's supporters point out that he is familiar with all sides of the issues and uniquely qualified to negotiate.
  3. iteration
    the act or process of doing or saying again
    In unveiling the third iteration of the travel ban in late September, the administration said that the eight countries did not share with the United States information to enable proper screening of their nationals. - The New York Times (November 13, 2017)
    After three attempts at getting court approval, parts of President Trump's travel ban were upheld by a federal court in California this week. This means that the ban on visitors without ties to the U.S. from those countries can start to go into effect immediately. The ban covers visitors from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
  4. conduit
    a passage through which water or electric wires can pass
    By publishing thousands of hacked emails, American intelligence agencies believe WikiLeaks was acting as a conduit for Russian operatives. - The New York Times (November 13, 2017)
    The investigation into the relationship between the Trump Campaign and Russian operatives intent on influencing the election continued this week with confirmation that the President's son, Donald Trump, Jr. exchanged messages with Wikileaks. Some in the intelligence community believe that Wikileaks was acting on behalf of Russian interests. Whether this is true and what Donald, Jr. thought the source of the Wikileaks data was at the time is unclear.
  5. pastime
    an interest or pursuit that someone pursues regularly
    Mary Frates has always adored doing word searches, but after dementia set in as she aged, the 86-year-old found herself unable to participate in her favorite pastime. - goodnewsnetwork.org (November 12, 2017)
    This week's uplifting story involves adapting to new situations while still being able to do things you love. Mary Frates' grandson realized that her dementia made her beloved word searches difficult, and he discovered that the only current solution were books with larger print. Not satisfied with that, John Frates made his grandma words searches himself- ones that weren't just easier to read but were also more straightforward. These puzzles will now be published as a book marketed to seniors.
  6. stifling
    forceful prevention; putting down by power or authority
    The deal was driven by Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and a handful of red-state Democrats who have long argued that the rules were stifling lending for their rural constituents. - politico.com (November 13, 2017)
    Both political parties in Congress worked together this week to change some banking laws. The laws involved lending rates that really put pressure on the small community banks doing the lending. Many of the rules being relaxed were first put into effect after the banking crisis of 2008, and while easing up on regulation is always risky, in this instance Congress felt that the laws were handcuffing the banks to an unfair degree.
  7. volatile
    tending to vary often or widely
    President Donald Trump has been urging congressional Republicans to use the tax bill to strip the requirement that most Americans have insurance, despite concerns it could inject volatile health care politics into the tax debate.- politico.com ( November 13, 2017)
    As rumored last week, the Republican Tax bill proposal will include a repeal of the Obamacare mandate that all Americans have health insurance. Republicans expect a revenue boost from not having to insure everyone, and they also view it as a way to fulfill a campaign promise many of them ran on - to end Obamacare.
  8. swift
    moving very fast
    After Taylor Swift’s Reputation album 700,000 copies in its first day in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music, the set continues to sell at a swift pace. -billboard.com (November 13, 2017)
    Taylor Swift's new album is selling very well, and it's no surprise. Even if you don't know her music, Swift's face has been all over- even on UPS packages and trucks and in the middle of TV's Scandal . Swift's core demographic remains young teenage girls, but I doubt anyone in that age group has a UPS account or is up watching that particular show. Taylor Swift is ubiquitous, and her brand is about being everywhere--we cannot escape.
  9. adamant
    impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
    But even as Mr. Sessions remained hazy on the details, he was adamant that he had swiftly rejected the aide’s suggestion. - The New York Times (November 13, 2017)
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, which is looking into the relationship between the Trump Campaign and Russia. This testimony comes on the heels of the revelation that George Papadopoulos, an aide, offered, at a meeting Sessions ran, to set up a meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin. Sessions said that he did not remember the meeting until reading about it recently, and was not lying when he failed to address the meeting in previous testimony.
  10. intervention
    the act of getting involved
    A senior White House official said the players had been given relatively light treatment due to Trump's intervention. - The New York Times ( November 13, 2017)
    Three UCLA basketball players were arrested for shoplifting at a Louis Vuitton store - in China! The lesson, if there is one, is that if you are going to do something monumentally stupid in a foreign country that could get you jailed for the rest of your life, it helps to coordinate it with the President's trip to that country. President Trump intervened on behalf of the basketball players, and they have now safely landed back on U.S. soil.
  11. coup
    a sudden and decisive change of government by force
    We have to make sure we aren’t being sold a dummy,” Elias Mudzuri, a deputy president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said by phone. “We aren’t sure of the endgame. They say this is not a coup, but, to us, it’s a coup.” - The New York Times (November 15, 2017)
    Robert Mugabe the leader of Zimbabwe, was removed from power this week in what appears to be a bloodless coup. Mugabe is 93 years old and has been the only ruler Zimbabwe has known since he first assumed power in 1980. Mugabe is known to rule with an iron fist and has a terrible human rights record. Apparently, the last straw for the military leaders who assumed power was when Mugabe tried to install his wife as his successor.
  12. grimace
    contort the face to indicate a certain mental state
    I grimace, wanting to make Kayla’s stink face, the face she makes when she’s angry or impatient; to everyone else, it looks like she’s smelled something nasty: her green eyes squinting, her nose a mushroom, her twelve tiny toddler teeth showing through her open mouth. I want to make that face because something about scrunching up my nose and squeezing the smell away might lessen it, might cut off that stink of death. - From Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
    Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward won the National Book Award for Fiction this week. It is Ward’s second time winning, having previously won for her novel Salvage the Bones. Ward is the only woman to have ever won the National Book Award for Fiction twice. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a family saga that takes place in Mississippi.
Created on 十一月 13, 2017 (updated 十一月 16, 2017)

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