The Words of the Week - Jun 12
Dictionary lookups from New York, Texas, and Utah
Photo: Dustin Satloff/Getty Images
‘Screwworm’
An outbreak of screwworm in Texas has led to increased lookups for screwworm.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week confirmed two infestations of New World screwworm in Texas—the state’s first cases since the 1970s.
—Heather Schlitz, Reuters, 8 June 2026
Screwworm refers to a blowfly (Cochliomyia hominivorax) of the warmer parts of America whose larva develops in sores or wounds or in the nostrils of mammals including humans with serious and sometimes fatal results. The word also often refers specifically to a blowfly larva.
‘Knickerbocker’
Lookups for knickerbocker rose during the NBA Finals.
I love the Knicks. In fact, I am a knickerbocker. We’ve been here since 1946, we haven’t won a championship in 53 years, or been to the finals in 27 years. My grandfather was a Knicks fan. … Finally, it’s our time.
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Knickerbocker is used as a nickname for a native or resident of the city or state of New York. It is also used more specifically for a descendent of the early Dutch settlers of New York. The word comes from Diedrich Knickerbocker, the fictious name used by Washington Irving as the author for his satiric 1809 book A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.
‘Racism’
Lookups for racism were high this week, possibly in connection to violence in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Scenes of violence after the stabbing attack in North Belfast on Monday are “robbing children of their right to live in safety,” Northern Ireland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People said. … “The subsequent violence, intimidation and racism have no place in our society, and they are profoundly damaging to children and young people who are witnessing and living with the consequences.”
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We define several senses of racism in our dictionary, including “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” and, most relevant to the quote above, “behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief : discrimination, prejudice, or violence against people because of their race.”
‘Tradwife’
An article about a prominent social media influencer opening a business in Utah drove higher-than-usual lookups for the word tradwife.
Tradwife Influencer Opens Store in Small Town. Tourists Abound.
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We define tradwife as “a married woman who embraces traditional gender roles (such as being a stay-at-home wife and mother)” and often “such a woman who promotes and shares her lifestyle and beliefs online.” Tradwife combines trad, shortened from traditional, and wife. What the term invokes by traditional is complex, but it generally characterizes a wife who—much like the stereotypical image of a 1950s housewife or, less commonly, 19th-century homesteader—devotes herself to taking care of the home, cooking, raising children, and dutifully serving her working husband (and looking beautiful while doing all of it). One defining aspect of the term and trend is that the woman chooses the lifestyle for herself. This is seen as a rejection of, broadly speaking, modern womanhood, in order to return to a romanticized domesticity and femininity of the past.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Buridan’s ass’
Most of us have in our lives been faced with a Hobson’s choice—that is, the necessity of accepting one of two or more equally objectionable alternatives. But have you ever been faced with Buridan’s ass? It’s also quite vexing, but perhaps, thankfully, nothing like what you’re imagining. Our Unabridged dictionary defines Buridan’s ass as “a hypothetical dilemma in which a person is postulated as presented with two equally attractive and attainable alternatives and therefore loses freedom of choice.”
The Buridan in question is Jean Buridan, a 14th century Aristotelian philosopher from France, who in a commentary on Aristotle’s De caelo, imagines a dilemma faced by an animal presented with two equal amounts of food, and the method by which the animal must choose between them. Discerning both a symmetry of information and a symmetry of preference about the two items, Buridan concludes that the animal must choose at random; this outcome leads to the investigation of theories of probability. Over time, references to Buridan’s dilemma changed the animal from a dog to a donkey, and the significance of the apologue to one of free will. While not especially common today, Buridan’s ass has historically also been used to refer to an indecisive person.
“I feel that I ought not to accept your kind invitation, and yet I want to go. I am more than ever ‘John Burridan’s Ass.’”
“What?”
“‘John Burridan’s Ass.’ My father, who was a scholar, and very appreciative of his son’s character, gave me that name when I was a boy, and it stuck to me in our family till I became a man. I am going to resume it; for my asinine qualities are becoming better developed every day of my life.”
“My dear fellow, you excite my curiosity. I never heard of John Burridan or of his ass. …”
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