escalation

Putin invades Crimea. Kermit the Frog goes to Siberia (where Tina Fey is prison warden). Journalists tweet pics of brown water flowing from faucets in Soviet-reminiscent Sochi hotel rooms. Wes Anderson enshrines that concept via "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Meanwhile Cold War history series "The Americans" is signed to a third season on FX. Call it War on Terror fatigue, ascribe it to fashion's habit of looking back, just don't try to deny it. The Cold War is hot right now, and so are the words in this list. (For words on this list originating from Russian, we reference Wikipedia's entry for List of English words of Russian origin.)

Stories about wandering elephants, happy rats, and baby sharks all contributed words to this list of vocabulary from the week's news.

The Cold War–The Present Day (1947–)