Ripped from the Headlines: February 2026: February Vocabulary Words

Carnival is most famous for its celebrations in Brazil and New Orleans, where it's known as Mardi Gras. This huge public party precedes Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and abstinence before Easter in Catholic cultures. Carnival participants dance and frolic and enjoy themselves in parades with floats, music, and elaborate costumes. Carnival comes from carne levare, which means "remove meat" in Latin. Many observers give up meat during Lent.

The Super Bowl, the National Football League's championship game, takes place on the first or second Sunday in February. Campus means "field" in Latin and was used to refer to a playing field or military training ground. A champion was originally a fighter — campionem in Latin — in this arena. Over time, the word came to mean the winner of such a contest.

February marks both Black History Month and Abraham Lincoln's birthday. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which provided for the liberation of over 3.5 million enslaved people in America effective on January 1 of 1863. Emancipation comes from the Latin verb emancipare, meaning "to set free."

Conversation hearts are popular candies around Valentine's Day. These little heart-shaped treats have romantic phrases and terms of endearment printed on them — like "sweet pea," "cutie pie," and "true love." Dear comes from the Old English déore, meaning "precious" or "expensive."

Because Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February 12, the federal holiday formerly called Washington's Birthday is now widely known as Presidents Day. Almost half of the 50 states have adopted the newer name, or a version of it, and nobody can agree where the apostrophe should go in Presidents — or if there should be one at all. Federal comes from foedus, which means "treaty" in Latin. It shares a root with fidere, meaning "to trust."

George Washington's birthday was February 22, 1732, but the national holiday created to honor him was moved to the third Monday of the month. Washington was one of the founders of the country and its first president, serving from 1789–1797. To found something is to begin it, to build it from the foundation up. The word comes from fundus, which means "bottom" or "foundation" in Latin.

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, more commonly known simply as Galileo, was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy. He made many important contributions to astronomy, physics, and other sciences, most famously the heliocentric theory, which asserted that the Earth orbits the sun as opposed to the other way around. This position got him tried and convicted for heresy; he was forced to publicly recant his views and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Integration, the process of including Black and other minority groups in all of society, took place in the decades following World War II and continues today. While some people see integration as a synonym for desegregation — segregation being the legal separation of races in schools, the military, and residential areas — others define integration as being any move towards equality, and reserve desegregation for changes to discriminatory laws.

The Lunar New Year, celebrated in many Asian countries, takes place in late January or early February every year. Because it's based on the lunar calendar, the holiday's date in the Gregorian calendar shifts depending on the phases of the moon. The festivities mark the beginning of spring, and often involve feasting, fireworks, and gift-giving.

February 2 is Groundhog Day. Every year since 1887, a Pennsylvania groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil predicts the weather by emerging from his burrow and looking around. If he sees his shadow, that supposedly means that there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't see it, that indicates an early spring. Scientific analyses of Phil's performance over the years put his accuracy at about 35–40 percent.

Because it takes the Earth 365.25 days to complete one orbit around the sun, every four years — known as a quadrennium — a day is added to the calendar. On these Leap Years, February gets a 29th day. The word quadrennium is Latin, built from quadri-, meaning "four," and annus, "year." Both of these Latin roots appear frequently in English, as in quadrilateral and annual.

Many Super Bowls are marked by heroic passes thrown by quarterbacks, who are often among the most famous players on a team. The quarterback was originally stationed between the forwards and the halfbacks, placing him a quarter of the way back from the line of scrimmage, the point on the field where the two teams face each other.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of extraordinary artistic and intellectual achievement in the 1920s and 1930s. Black writers, musicians, artists, and dancers based in New York's Harlem neighborhood created works that influenced American culture in profound and enduring ways. Many people honor Black History Month by reading or viewing works created during the Harlem Renaissance. Renaissance means "rebirth" in French.

Valentine's Day is a holiday marked by all sorts of romantic gestures, from the giving of cards and flowers to surprise dinners or trips. Romantic comes from the Late Latin romanticus, meaning "of a poem." Apart from its association with anything love-related, this word can also describe a work of music or literature that stirs the emotions.

The Constitution requires the President to "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union" — and since the 1930s the tradition has been for the President to give an annual speech to a joint session of Congress in late January or early February. George Washington delivered the first such speech in 1790.

February is American Heart Month, when people are encouraged to focus on their cardiac health. Heart disease is one of the most devastating diseases in the U.S., but fortunately, there are healthy habits people can adopt to help prevent cardiac events like heart attacks and strokes. The word cardiac comes from the Greek kardia, meaning "heart."