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Ripped from the Headlines: September 2020: This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for September 26–October 2, 2020

Stories about the presidential debate, a leaky International Space Station, and the raging California wildfires all contributed words to this week's list of vocabulary from the week's top news stories.
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. contempt
    disrespect for the authority of a court or legislative body
    While the court has the authority to find the Trump administration in contempt, attorneys for the civil rights groups and local governments said in a motion Thursday that they weren’t seeking a contempt finding at this time.
    AP (Sep 30, 2020)
    A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to suspend a lower court's order requiring the census count to be continued through the end of October. The administration has been trying to complete the count by October 5th. Contemptus is a Latin word meaning "scorn" or "hatred."
  2. debacle
    a sudden and complete disaster
    The first presidential debate was widely panned as an embarrassing debacle a day after President Trump and Joe Biden traded insults and vitriol for 98 minutes, leading the Commission on Presidential Debates to consider changing the format...
    Washington Post (Sep 30, 2020)
    President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden had the first of three debates, and the event was chaotic. The President repeatedly interrupted Biden, and Biden called the President a "clown" and told him to shut up. Observers were almost unanimous in declaring the debate a disgrace.
  3. enclave
    an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct
    Nagorno-Karabakh tensions have simmered since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought a war over the territory, a heavily ethnic Armenian enclave surrounded by Azeri territory.
    Washington Times (Oct 1, 2020)
    Armenia and Azerbaijan continued their hostilities over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a heavily Armenian area located entirely within Azerbaijan. Russia, France, and the U.S. called on both countries to cease fire and return to negotiations. Russia backs Armenia, which is largely Christian, while Turkey supports Muslim Azerbaijan.
  4. enigma
    something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
    In Mr. Trump’s nearly four years in office — and across his endlessly hyped decades in the public eye — journalists, prosecutors, opposition politicians and conspiracists have, with limited success, sought to excavate the enigmas of his finances.
    New York Times (Sep 27, 2020)
    The New York Times published a lengthy report on the received the President's tax returns. The article shows that many of his businesses are losing money, that he carries a lot of debt which comes due in the next couple of years, and that he paid little or no taxes for many years despite living a lavish lifestyle. The President's defenders say that he has successfully used the tax code to his advantage.
  5. intimate
    imply as a possibility
    Throughout the fall, Donald Trump has frequently intimated that a vaccine might be approved before the election.
    New Yorker (Sep 29, 2020)
    Hundreds of thousands of people in China have already received an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, including government and pharmaceutical industry figures. Approval of the vaccine may come on an accelerated schedule, but it's unclear exactly when that might happen. As an adjective, intimate can mean "very personal," but as a verb it means "to hint at strongly."
  6. morose
    showing a brooding ill humor
    On Wednesday morning, Republicans were somewhat morose about Trump’s performance and the longer-term outcome.
    Guardian (Sep 30, 2020)
    Democratic fundraising website ActBlue raised $3.8 million for Joe Biden in one hour after Tuesday's debate, breaking previous records by a huge margin. While nearly everybody thought the debate was a disaster, polls taken afterward showed that most viewers thought Biden won. The President tweeted on Wednesday morning that he won.
  7. opine
    express one's view openly and without fear or hesitation
    Romney, who was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2012, declined to opine about the political impact of the president's debate performance, but he did quip, "It was not a Lincoln-Douglas debate, that's for sure."
    NPR (Sep 30, 2020)
    After the President refused to denounce white supremacists during the debate, politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned that choice, saying he need to do so clearly. Some Republicans defended the President, saying either that he misspoke or that he responded appropriately. Opine is the verb form of opinion; if you write or say what you think about something, you're opining.
  8. regardless
    in spite of everything
    Regardless, scientists say climate change is drying out vegetation too fast for modern tools and the firefighters that use them to keep up.
    CBS News (Sep 30, 2020)
    Wildfires in California continue to do widespread damage. The Glass Fire has consumed 50,000 acres in the Napa and Sonoma County wine regions, destroying a number of prestigious wineries and restaurants. Hot weather and drought have created huge amounts of fuel for these fires, and high winds are spreading them quickly.
  9. resin
    a viscous substance obtained from plants or simple molecules
    Crew members patched it up with epoxy resin for the remainder of the time the Soyuz was docked to the space station.
    BBC (Sep 30, 2020)
    The International Space Station crew had to search for an air leak, and it took a few weeks to locate it. The leak was tiny, but it appeared to grow larger over time — this later turned out to be an error — and efforts to find it were intensified. It was eventually located in the Russian Zvezda module and determined to be a flaw that occurred during manufacture. Epoxy is a resin, and so is the sticky sap from pine trees.
  10. scour
    rinse, clean, or empty with a liquid
    After that, increased levels of chlorine will be pumped through the system to scour through and kill any traces of the deadly microbe, which could take an additional 60 days.
    USA Today (Sep 30, 2020)
    A boy in Lake Jackson, Texas died from a brain infection caused by drinking water contaminated with an amoeba called Naegleria fowleri. The city has ordered everyone to boil their water before drinking it, and has implemented plans to clean the whole municipal water system. Scour means "to rinse or clean," and also "to scrub vigorously." It comes from the Latin excurare, meaning "to scrub" or "to polish."
Created on Wed Sep 30 19:14:14 EDT 2020 (updated Mon Oct 05 08:12:18 EDT 2020)

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