1/3/2024 – The war in Ukraine has reintroduced these words and phrases into our vocabulary

Pedestrians cross a street in front of a billboard displaying the letter “Z” in the colors of the ribbon of St. George and a slogan: “We don’t give up on our people,” in support of the Russian armed forces, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 7.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has many of us using new words and phrases, from geopolitical terms like “rump state” to military lingo such as “MANPADS.”

We’re also learning to decipher slogans and spot differences between Russian and Ukrainian spellings during a conflict in which information is treated as its own battlefield.

Tracking surges in the words we use is part of linguist Grant Barrett’s job. He is the co-host of A Way with Words, a public radio show about words and language, and a vice president of the American Dialect Society.

“As a word watcher, we get a sense of the worries of the world,” he told NPR.

Barrett points out how the term Cold War has now been supplanted by the term “hot war” — a violent conflict with many of the worst burdens borne by civilians.

With Barrett’s help, NPR created a kind of war glossary, explaining some of the terms people are using to discuss the war Russia and President Vladimir Putin are waging on Ukraine.

Appeasement

The Western world is debating whether permitting Putin to retain some of the territory he has seized would “be like the 1938 appeasement of Hitler by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain,” Barrett said.

Some experts, noting that Russia seized Crimea in 2014, warn that Putin could be further emboldened by any accommodations.

Voice of Ukraine