https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/may-i-have-a-word-another-way-to-say-trump/ar-AAT8jSy?li=BBnbfcL
Last time, I asked you for a word to replace the now-fraught term trump, as in “Love trumps hate.” Many readers agreed that trump now carries more baggage than an apolitical word should, and a few of them offered work-arounds such as the T-word and t***p to avoid naming He Who Must Not Be Named.
I received a handful of new coinages or portmanteaus, such as trouncesends (or trounce-sends), from Ruth Sessions, of Hudson, N.H.; vansquish, from Deborah Vatcher, of Plainville; and trump-l’oreille, from Cynthia Smith. Linda Swicker, of Ipswich, wrote: “A friend thought that no part of trump should be contained in the new word, but I was thinking exump might work as a replacement.”
What I heard loud and clear from nearly all of the rest of ye, though, was that we don’t need a new word, because perfectly good synonyms for trump already exist. Kim Sampson, of Melrose, shared three of them: conquer, trounce, and the unembellished vanquish. Jeanie Kelley, of Abington, and Geoff Patton, of Ashland, both suggested the verb best. Maia Farish, of Providence, R.I., offered up eclipse. Leslee Wagner, of Swarthmore, Pa., proposed numb, as in “Love numbs hate.” And Annie Goodrich, of Brookline, wrote: “‘Love tops hate.’ Short, simple, retains the t!”
I was touched when Chris Waddell, of Hanson, sent me this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: “Dr. King would have used overcome.” William Falk, of Newton, wrote: “You said that the synonym should not trigger political associations. But in the African Luo language group I found the term obam, which means ‘to bend or lean.’ One could say, for example, ‘Hope obams despair.’” Bill, swapping out one ex-president for his predecessor won’t help us unify our nation. Sharon Curhan, of Lincoln, wrote: “My suggestion is Biden. I guess this was the choice of some 81 million other people, too.” Sharon wins made-me-laugh bragging rights this time.