Veteran editor learned new words

Mack the Knife used to say, “You learn something new every day.”

(Don’t know who Mack the Knife is? I suggest you consult both Bobby Darin and Bertolt Brecht.)

At any rate, the bloodthirsty old scoundrel had a point.

You can learn something new every day.

Consider this, after working most of my lifetime with words, I saw my vocabulary grow significantly over a matter of days.

New Word No. 1 — Deked.

I was proofreading Chris Schanz’s sports page in The CR, and at first I was convinced I’d found a typo. Surely, I thought, that’s supposed to be “decked” not “deked.” But “decked” made no sense in that context.

So I turned, as we all do in this era, to the internet.

And sure enough “deked” is a word. It’s the past tense of “to deke,” which essentially means “to fake somebody out.” The word comes from the world of hockey, and Chris assured me that if I had grown up watching “The Mighty Ducks” as a kid, I would know the term.

New Word No. 2 — Vlogger.

Again, I was helping out with proofreading in the newsroom. It’s not something I do every day, but when we were trying to meet early deadlines because of the holidays, it was an opportunity to pitch in.

Surely, I thought, that’s supposed to be “blogger.” We all know what a blogger is: It’s a columnist or opinion writer who doesn’t get paid for his or her writing or opinions.

This time, I asked.

Nope, Rose Skelly assured me, “vlogger” is the right word.

So, what’s a “vlogger”? Apparently it’s someone who doesn’t want to be bothered with actually writing their opinions but simply records them on video with their phone and posts them online.

In other words, it’s someone who yaks a lot and doesn’t get paid for it.

New Word No. 3 — Ourobouros.

Never encountered it? Join the club.

One of my Christmas gifts was Ursula LeGuin’s last book of poetry. And on the back of the dust jacket, they had reprinted her poem “Ancestry” which used that word I’d never encountered.

Again to the internet. Turns out that “ouroboros” refers to an ancient symbol depicting a serpent eating the end of its own tail. It often pops up in designs for bracelets. You’ve probably seen it and never had any idea what it was called. I know that was the case for me.

Is it a word I will ever use in conversation? Probably not.

But it was exactly the right word in the right line for LeGuin’s poem.

New Word No. 4 — Kayfabe.

This one popped up at breakfast, believe it or not.

My wife was reading some political piece which made reference to the 2020 presidential election and suggested that “kayfabe” was the best description.

Maybe so, but both of us were stumped.

Turns out, it’s a word from the world of professional wrestling.

It has to do with those staged portrayals of action within the ring.

That seemed like a good fit for the world of politics.

And it just goes to show that Mack the Knife had it right: “You learn something new every day.”