This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for November 15–November 21, 2025

A very special cheese earned accolades at the World Cheese Awards in Bern, Switzerland. Gruyère AOP Vorderfultigen Spezial took home the top prize. This winning cheese, which is dry-salted and then aged for 18 months, earned high praise from 265 judges. One said, "Anyone who eats it… gets excited about it and wants to go back for more." Accolade's Latin root means "embrace around the neck," and was originally a term for granting knighthood with a sword tap and an embrace.

The northern lights were visible across much of the U.S. last week, with vivid auroral colors illuminating skies as far south as Florida and Alabama. These rare sightings were caused by unusually active solar storms that sent charged particles into Earth's magnetic field. The resulting light show filled the night sky with stunning bands and arcs of pink, blue, green, purple, and yellow. Auroral is from Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn.

Iceland's former prime minister said that the country's traditional language, Icelandic, is in danger of disappearing. According to Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the English language is increasingly encroaching on Icelandic, as more and more Icelanders are reading and writing in English. She says the rise of AI is contributing to the problem, as young people "are absolutely surrounded by material in English" in social media. Encroach is from a French word meaning "seize by hook."

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she only sleeps two to four hours a night, spurring questions about her pledge to change Japan's corporate culture so employees can have a better work-life balance. Customs that lead to overwork and exhaustion, including excessively long work hours, have long been a concern in Japan, where fatigue is often blamed for premature deaths and low birthrates. The Latin root of fatigue is fatigare, "to weary, to tire out."

After winning last year's NCAA championship, the University of Connecticut's women's basketball team looks ready to be a juggernaut again this season. The top-ranked Huskies dominated the first four games of the season, winning each by more than 20 points, and leading in assists, rebounds, and turnovers. Led by powerhouse sophomore Sarah Strong, the team also has a wide range of extremely capable players, giving them an intimidatingly strong bench.

A new policy in a small Oklahoma city allows people who are fined for parking infractions and traffic violations to donate food in lieu of paying their fines. Through the end of November, residents of Chickasha can bring non-perishable food to the municipal courthouse, exchanging one item for every 10 dollars owed, up to 100 dollars. Instead of paying a 50-dollar parking ticket, a person could donate five cans of soup. A similar program accepts food donations to pay overdue library fees.

Scientists are using tiny radio tags to follow monarch butterflies on their annual migrations. The monarchs travel thousands of miles south to winter in Mexico, some from as far north as Ontario. Using the solar-powered sensors, researchers are following more than 400 tagged butterflies on their journey. They've found that most monarchs go directly to Mexico, but others go to Florida, and some others stop over in Cuba. Migration comes from a Latin root meaning "a moving."

The Federal Aviation Authority rescinded its previous restrictions on the number of commercial airplane flights. As airports experienced staffing shortages during the government shutdown, the FAA had limited air traffic from 40 U.S. airports, reducing the number of flights by 6 percent. The cancellation of those limitations meant a return to normal air travel. Rescind derives from the Latin rescindere, "remove by cutting off."

Pope Leo XIV returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous Canadians on November 15. The return of the items, which included an Inuit kayak, masks, and wampum belts, was part of a larger plan for restitution. The Catholic Church is working to acknowledge and make amends for damage it caused to Indigenous peoples in the past by suppressing their native cultures and spiritual traditions. Restitution comes from the Latin restitutionem, "a restoring."

After a dog named Whisp fell 100 feet down a Scottish cliff face, he was rescued and found to be completely unscathed. The two-year-old border collie tumbled over a rocky precipice on Shetland's Northmavine peninsula while walking with his owner, landing on an inaccessible ledge. A coastguard crew of rescuers tried unsuccessfully to reach the dog from the water before using ropes and pulleys to haul him up to safety. Clearly unharmed, Whisp ran to be reunited with his relieved owner.