![]() ![]() ![]() Mr Trump later visited the Vatican and met with Pope Francis. An “orb” as we would understand it would be called a globus in Latin (the root of English globe). The word comes from Latin orbis, which could mean circle, disc, or world, (the orbis lacteus was the Latin name for the Milky Way), and from which we also get the word “orbit”. Although the three men were in fact opening the new Global Centre for Combatting Extremist Ideology, certainly a noble and worthy cause, the photo had such a look of cartoonish supervillainy that it became an instant meme, and brought the common word orb into the headlines. He went to Saudi Arabia, ate steak and ketchup (classy!), and was photographed placing his hands on a glowing orb, along with King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Bigly, however, is Trump’s own contribution to the English language.Īnd Mr Trump was doing more than pretending to coin new phrases in May. As it literally refers to pouring water down a water pump in order to start it working, it’s likely to be one of those phrases that no one really “invented”, and in any case, it has been around a long time. ![]() In fact, priming the pump, in as an economic metaphor, dates back at least to the Great Depression (it was used in a satirical newspaper cartoon poking fun at FDR’s economic policies, which could certainly be called “pump priming”). The fact that Trump was speaking to a journalist from the prestigious Economist magazine didn’t help him save face. Almost as embarrassing as when President Trump suggested he had just invented the phrase prime the pump, in the sense of trying to stimulate an economy. But during the 2000 US General Election campaign, he claimed he did, which was pretty embarrassing. Remember when Al Gore invented the internet? Of course you don’t, because he didn’t. ![]()
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