Ripped from the Headlines: August 2023: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for August 19–August 25, 2023

A Georgia judge set former President Trump's bail at $200,000 in the election interference case against him. After he surrenders at the Fulton County jail this week, Trump will have to pay the fee in order to be released before his trial begins. Another part of his bond agreement with the district attorney is a commitment not to "intimidate or threaten" any witnesses or co-defendants, including on social media. The Latin root of bail is baiulare, "to bear a burden."

The world's oldest captive orca died just before she was due to be released into the wild after years of pressure from animal advocates. Lolita, who was captured from the Pacific when she was young, was kept at the Miami Seaquarium for over 50 years. Members of her family, including her 95-year-old mother, still live off the coast of Washington state; activists had hoped to see Lolita swim freely there before she died. Captive is from a root meaning "to grasp."

For girls in England and Spain, the Women's World Cup final between their countries have been a catalyst, inspiring more of them to play soccer themselves. The Spanish team's victory has motivated the country to invest more money in girls' soccer, and encouraged growing numbers of young women to hit the field. Experts say the higher profile of women's football makes the sport seem like a viable and thrilling opportunity, not just for boys but for girls as well.

A full-contact wheelchair football association begins its tournament season this week. The USA Wheelchair Football League allows athletes who use wheelchairs to participate in a sport that involves at least as much bodily impact as football or rugby. Players in sturdy sport chairs face off in teams of seven players, and regularly collide into each other in lieu of tackling. Spectators are witness to the sound of metal smashing against metal throughout the games.

Seven students in Pakistan were rescued after being stranded for 12 hours in a broken cable car that dangled hundreds of feet in the air. The students, who range in age from 10 to 15, were taking their ordinary route to school when two cables snapped, leaving the car swaying, suspended over the valley below. Rescuers used a helicopter and zip lines to bring the children to safety. Dangle shares a Scandinavian root with the Swedish dangla, "to swing about."

To reward Kevin Ford, a hard-working 20-year employee who had never used a sick day, Burger King gave him a goody bag filled with candy, a movie ticket, and a few other treats. His daughter and several thousand social media followers believed that Ford's work ethic deserved more, and they raised over $400,000 for him on GoFundMe. Ford said his strong belief in working hard came from his parents' example. The Greek ēthos, "moral character," is the root of ethic.

A deadly listeria outbreak has been linked to milkshakes from a Frugal's restaurant in Washington state. Officials said that the machine used to make the shakes wasn't properly cleaned, leading to bacterial growth. The food-borne bacteria, which is especially dangerous for people who are pregnant, over 65, or have compromised immune systems, caused infections that resulted in three deaths. Listeria is named after a pioneering 19th-century surgeon, Joseph Lister.

Researchers say newly found fossils from the oldest-known plant-eating dinosaur highlight how much we don't yet know about Earth’s prehistory. The 167-million-year-old fossils were recovered from an area of India's Rajasthan that is a desert today, but was a tropical coast during the Mesozoic Era. It's the first evidence of a dicraeosaurid, or long-necked herbivorous dinosaur, found in that region. Prehistory is from prehistoric, "of times before recorded history."

On August 21, the New York Knicks filed a lawsuit accusing the Toronto Raptors of stealing proprietary information. The suit alleges that the Raptors hired a spy to pose as an employee and email confidential Knicks documents — including analytics data, scouting information, and play frequency reports — to the Toronto team's management. Part of the suit accuses the Raptors of "misappropriating trade secrets under New York common law." Proprietary comes from property.

The longtime voice of Nintendo's Mario has announced he will retire. Charles Martinet has voiced the Italian plumber since the 1996 release of Super Mario 64 and is credited with inventing the character's signature phrases, including "It's-a me, Mario!" and "Woo-hoo!" The catchphrases have become so tied to Mario that it's nearly impossible to hear "Let's-a go!" without picturing the cheerful, mustached video game character.

Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson officially became the fastest woman in the world after she won a world championship title in Budapest on August 21. Richardson ran the 100-meter sprint in a record-breaking 10.65 seconds. Sprint, originally defined as "to spring," is from the Old Norse root spretta, "to jump up."

Officials in Sayreville, New Jersey said that a power outage was caused by an osprey dropping a fish on a transformer. After more than 2,000 people lost electric power earlier this month, workers found the fish on top of a utility pole. The transformer's coils apparently became misaligned when the fish hit it. A transformer gets its name from the process of transforming, or changing, both current and voltage as it passes electricity from circuit to circuit.