Column: Understanding real definition of 'trendy' words used in media

Sometimes a word sticks with me.

Maybe it’s because I like the way it sounds or what it reminds me of. Maybe it keeps cropping up in something I am reading or it is a trendy word used over and over by the media.

“Draconian” is a word that keeps jumping in front of me. For example: “If sequestration is not resolved in a bipartisan way, Draconian cuts in the budget will automatically kick in.” The word seems to be thrown about quite a bit these days.

Come to think of it, besides “Draconian,” there are at least two other regularly used words, “sequestration” and “bipartisan,” that I find interesting in that example sentence.

In context of its recent usage, I figured “sequestration” meant something like “automatic decisions made about a budget,” but just to be sure, I looked it up. The dictionary tells me “sequester” (Actually “budget sequester”) is a “U.S. legal procedure in which automatic spending cuts are triggered.” Another use of the word, “jury sequestration,” means “The isolation of a jury.”

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