Lexical Compendium

An acronym for Internal Combustion Engine. This acronym seems to be bandied about a lot during automobile discussions, especially when discussing electric vehicles (EVs).

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA, pronounced "eye-EE-puh") is a U.S. federal law enacted in 1977 that grants the President broad authority to regulate commerce and impose economic sanctions during a declared national emergency related to external threats.

IEEPA was signed into law by President Carter as a response to the Iran Hostage Crisis.

The act is frequently used to enforce sanctions against foreign governments, organizations, and individuals involved in terrorism, cyber threats, or other destabilizing activities.

In January 2025, President Trump used these powers to enact tariffs on Canada and Mexico using the external threat of illegal immigration and drug trade (specifically fentanyl).

Update: on 02 April 2025, President Trump declared another national emergency in order to use his IEEPA powers. This time the emergency was posed by the large and persistent trade deficit that is driven by the absence of reciprocity in our trade relationships and other harmful policies like currency manipulation and exorbitant value-added taxes (VAT) perpetuated by other countries. This emergency was used to implement broad and sweeping tariffs against most contries. ^[9]

Update: on 28 May 2025 judges ruled that Trump's usage of IEEPA exceeds what the Constitution permits. Obviously this will be appealed. ^[3]

Update: on 05 November 2025 the Supreme Court held a hearing on whether or not the Trump administration has the authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA. ^[2]

Update: on 20 February 2026 the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against Trump's tarriffs. ^[1]

"I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal, you sockdologizing old man-trap" was delivered just before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 in the play Our American Cousin. The audience’s laughter at the joke provided the cover John Wilkes Booth needed to fire his shot.

Sockdologizing is 19th-century slang for something decisive, final, or conclusive, often referring to a telling blow in an argument or a finishing move.

The humor in the line comes from its exaggerated insult, aimed at a male character but framed in absurdly feminizing terms, culminating in man-trap, a term for a woman who ensnares men. To a 19th-century audience, this mix of ridicule and bombast landed as a sharp comedic moment.

I came upon this line while watching Manhunt.

Infinocchiare is an Italian word which means to cheat or swindle someone.

The term has interesting origins. The root of the word comes from the term finocchio which means fennel in English. In the Middle Ages, fennel was used as a masking spice. Wine merchants would serve customers fennel before offering them wine, in order to hide defects. In the same way, butchers began to put it in their salami as an alternative to pepper in order to cover up the taste of not very good meat.

Though not for the same reasons, this tradition persists today. When we were in Tuscany, Italy, we discovered finocchiona salami and I became intrigued with this word.

In Italian, the phrase Non farti infinocchiare means Don't be fooled but it translates precisely in English to Don't get fenneled.

An inkhorn term is one that is pretentious or overly ornate (often words from Latin or Greek).

An "inkhorn" was how ink was carried by scholars and clerks in the 1500s. The metaphor suggests that such words come from the scholar’s desk rather than natural speech.

Ironically, some words which historically were derided as inkhorn terms are now rather mundane and commonplace... including the word mundane.

Example:

Sally loved to flaunt her giant vocabulary, peppering every conversation with inkhorn terms that left her friends reaching for a dictionary.

Intransigent means refusing to change one's views or to compromise.

It is usually used for a person or position that has become rigid or obstinate, especially in a dispute or negotiation. The word has a slightly political flavor to my ear, perhaps because it so often appears in descriptions of deadlocked governments, labor fights, or ideological standoffs.

Example:

The talks collapsed because both sides remained intransigent.

"Jawboning" is a political technique in which statements are made by persons of authority in order how to influence public perception or behavior without making formal policy changes.

Jevons Paradox is the economic principle stating that as technological improvements increase the efficiency of resource use, overall consumption of that resource may increase rather than decrease.

Originally observed by 19th-century economist William Stanley Jevons in relation to coal consumption during the Industrial Revolution, the paradox highlights how greater efficiency lowers costs, which can drive higher demand.

Jevons Paradox was in the news a lot early in 2025 after the unveiling of AI models developed by a Chinese start-up called DeepSeek. In a report titled "DeepSeek-V3 Technical Report" published in December, DeepSeek showed that they were able to create this AI model much more efficiently (and cheaper) than their counterparts (i.e. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta's Llama, etc).

AI research benefits from more efficient neural networks, yet Jevons Paradox suggests that these efficiency gains will lead to even greater overall computational demand, as more complex models are developed and deployed at scale.

While all of this was in the news, Microsoft's Satya Nadella posted on X: Jevons paradox strikes again! As AI gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket, turning it into a commodity we just can't get enough of.

Kayfabe is the convention of presenting staged performances as genuine or authentic. The word is used primarily in the world of wrestling, but it is also used more generally to just mean a fake presentation. I heard the word being used in the context of politics to describe President Trump and lying.

The exact etymology of the word is uncertain, but there are theories that it is slang (perhaps somewhat Pig Latin-ized) for "be fake." ^[2]