The Syrian Revolution

After more than 50 years of rule, the Assad family dynasty has come to an end as revolutionaries led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overtook Damascus on Saturday—and Pres. Bashar al-Assad fled for Moscow. The dramatic events are the culmination of a civil war that has wracked the country since 2011. And it recalls other 21st-century heads of state who fled amid unrest, including Tunisian Pres. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Ukrainian Pres. Viktor Yanukovych.
All About the Syrian Militant Group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
© Omar Haj Kadour—AFP/Getty Images

Polarizing Diction

Polarization has been chosen as the word of the year—reflecting the bitterly fought 2024 presidential election—by our sister company Merriam-Webster. The use of polarization as a “division into two sharply distinct opposites” dates back to the early 1800s, when it first described light waves. The physical meaning of polarize—“to cause to vibrate in a definite pattern”—led to the political and cultural meaning that defines the word today. Here are a few more of Merriam-Webster’s words of 2024, and their distant origins.

Pander

Pander, defined as “to say, do, or provide what someone wants or demands even though it is not proper, good, or reasonable,” was another election-year keyword. The term is often applied to politicians, but that wasn’t always the case. A character named Pandarus is an antagonist in Homer’s Iliad. But the modern usage of pander hails from the version of Pandarus who appears in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and serves as a go-between for the titular lovers.

Weird

The term that vice presidential candidate Tim Walz used to describe his Republican opponents, weird has an ancient origin. The term wyrd was originally an Old English noun essentially meaning “fate.” In Greek and Roman mythology, fate described any of three goddesses who determined human destinies. This led to the fates being described as sisters. Weird’s modern usage, meaning “of strange or extraordinary character,” derives from the Weird Sisters, the three creatures who prophesy the destinies of the main characters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Democracy

Democracy saw a big uptick in search volume this year. The term is derived from the Greek dēmokratia, which was coined from dēmos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”) in the middle of the 5th century BCE to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens. Although the word itself never appears in the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution, it is closely associated with American government.

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A look behind the curtain in Edgar Degas's The Ballet Class
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