This blog focuses mostly on evolution and science. Part of evolution is cultural evolution, and for humans the most important kind of cultural evolution may be language. I have written several essays about the evolution of language. Now it’s time for me to focus on a language issue for the current day.
For centuries, the verb to trump has meant, in card games, that the hand of cards that one person has prevails over the hand that another person has. The ace trumps the jack, for example. But since Donald Trump has entered the political scene, this word has been given a new meaning, not by the dictionaries and the people who watch over our language, but the way the word is used in everyday speech. I wish to propose a slight extension of the meaning.
It hasn’t just been since Trump entered the presidential campaign the first time in 2016. The image created by his behavior has been going on for decades. Back in the 1990s, news articles commonly presented Trump as an arrogant rich man, an image he cultivated in his television show. Even while he faced one bankruptcy after another, he promoted his image as a powerful man because of his wealth. See, for example, these Newsweek articles from thirty years ago:
· March 4, 1990, about Trump’s collapsing real estate, casino, and airline empires, and others on May 14 and June 18.
· A cartoon published on May 4, 1991 with Natives joking about Trump wanting to sell the island of Manhattan back to them.
Trump’s behavior has also given him the popular image as thinking himself unbridled in his approaches to women. Further Newsweek articles from thirty years ago include:
· March 4, 1990, about Trump’s divorce woes;
· December 24, 1990 with an article about Trump and Rowanne Brewer;
· July 8, 1991with an article about Trump and Carla Bruni;
· April 19, 1993 with a photo of Trump embracing Marla Maples.
But since being president the first time, Trump has used his power to squelch any and all criticism of himself.
Therefore, I suggest a new meaning to the verb “to trump”: it means to screw over. The reason is that Trump was convicted of financial felonies connected to sex, and has been accused of sexual harassment, and has said demeaning things about how much women love to have him grab them. Even in those cases where his negative image did not lead to a conviction, it is still part of his image.
Because of all of this, I suggest that the following uses of the verb to trump are useful figures of speech:
· A big corporation can trump a smaller one.
· A big country can trump a smaller one.
· A man can trump a woman.
Language continues to evolve. Already, according to this article in The Atlantic, people who dislike Trump are avoiding the use of the verb. But maybe we can make it into a useful verb once again.
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