Trump, Card

By William Germano. It’s difficult to read any standard definition of the word trump and not feel that the lexicographers had an eye on the contemporary political moment.
The word may have never been on our lips as often as in the past year. The Google Ngram Viewer demonstrates an enthusiasm for the word trump as peaking in the 1890s, back in America’s Gilded Age, after which it went into decline until the beginning of this century. More...