The Words of President Donald Trump

The unique vocabulary of Donald J. Trump

It's hard to believe, but the presidential term of Donald Trump is almost a quarter complete. Now, we could debate about what has gone on inside and outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for days. But, we're not a forum for that. We are, however, excited to examine the unique vocabulary that Trump has brought to the Oval Office. Jennifer Sclafani is a linguist at Georgetown University, and she says "he is interesting to me because linguistically, he speaks like everyone else, and we're not used to hearing that from the President."

And, Trump definitely has some favorite words . . . let's take a look at a few from his first term as president.

Huge/yuge

Whether it's something he just likes saying or a pronunciation affected by his understated New York accent, yuge is a prime example of Trump's linguistics in action. When talking about a truly grandiose scale: think solid-gold staircases—that's yuge.

Mental Floss notes that the word has been a featured term in the NYC and Philadelphia areas for years as well as overseas in the Irish cities of Cork and Dublin. They also accurately observed that the "h-dropping occurs in a specific environment: only in words that start with a hu—huge, humid, humongous." Seems like New York followed Trump into the White House with this one.

Bigly

We haven't heard this one much lately, but it's a legitimate word. We define it as "in a big way; greatly: Their gifts made the children smile bigly."

If you'll recall the campaign in the fall of 2016, Trump used the term in a debate, and it pretty much short-circuited Twitter. To which, Donald Jr. flatly stated "he said 'big league'." You decide.

Stupid

This is a pejorative term that is meant as an insult—no other way to spin it. It's a real hard-hitter, and Trump has proven that he's not shy of hard-hitting.

However, we hope this is a word he uses less of in his second year, it's better to build 'em up rather than to knock em' down.

Loser

This is another one that carries a lot of weight, especially if a person of power uses it. Trump has used the term a lot, describing everyone from Cher to terrorists as losers.

There are two schools of thought here. One might suggest this approach is an indiscriminate use of the term, which may make its effect less serious. On the other hand, carpet-bombing your foes with this insult may be the path of least resistance that provides the highest return: a reaction.

Moron

And, to round out the pejorative insults that Trump loves, moron may be his favorite. This word has been used against anyone who doesn't align with conservative views, including the writers of Modern Family.

He also gets what he gives: Reports indicate that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson supposedly used this word to describe Trump during the summer of 2017.

Great

Great is a commonly used term to denote something that is really good, really outstanding. Example: "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border." And, who can forget "Make America great again!"

We sure can't and neither can most television shows, comedians, article headlines, news reports.

Incredible

The WashingtonTimes.com notes that "Donald never met a superlative he didn’t like," and that's right on the button. Incredible has to be right at the top.

There’s really nothing bad about a superlative here and there. However, when you overuse them, it gets harder and harder to differentiate between that which is truly incredible and what is merely average. There's another interesting usage of this word that Trump likes, as well . . . click ahead to see more.

Covfefe

In the early hours of May 31, 2017, the President decides to tweet, "Despite the negative press covfefe." That's it. Not only is there no such word, it's a glaring sentence fragment.

In the New York Times, former press secretary Sean Spicer said "The President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant." Considering the context it was used in, maybe it's code for coverage, as in "despite the negative press coverage." Regardless, we wouldn't be surprised if this word joins the English lexicon for good after all of its press covfefe this year.

Fake news

Of course, the term is now commonly used to describe some type of disinformation that is disseminated. Trump claims he invented the term, which The Washington Post says is untrue.

But, what the heck, we're adding it anyway, because even if Trump didn't coin it, he definitely put it on the map.

Classy

Betsy Rymes is a linguistic anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and said on the site, WilsonQuarterly.com, "People have two ideas about the word classy. The first is that it’s sort of somebody who has class or seems high-class. The other, which seems like it’s gotten so saturated with sarcasm and irony, is used just as often to mean the opposite”.

Trump seems to use the first meaning of the word most often though, "I built the Grand Hyatt right next to Grand Central Station — beautiful, classy job — but then the city denied my request to have the top 10 floors illuminated with my face at night. Can you believe that?" Nope. Hard to fathom that decision.

Winning

According to CNN.com "[winning] frames everything as a challenge, a competition to be won, which definitely echoes Trump's competitive personal nature and business background." The act of winning is an absolute essential ingredient to the Trump formula.

"You're going to win so much you may get tired of winning." There's danger in setting the level of expectation that high, though. If you miss it, you've got a long distance to fall.

Zero

Zero is literally nothing; so, it’s not hard to realize that Trump stores this word in his "disparaging" arsenal. Some tweets confirm this: "Crooked Hillary Clinton has zero natural talent." "Jeb Bush has zero communication skills."

It’s either zero or a million for President Trump . . . no in between.

The above was plagiarized from dictionary.com.