GRE Word List #6

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Hello folks! Welcome back.
This is a series of GRE Word List Blogs we bring to you weekly, to beef up your vocabulary and help you ace your GRE Verbal section.

Haven’t read the other GRE Words List blogs in this series yet? Check them out below!

#1 – It’s all Greek and Latin!
#2 – Welcome to the Blob!
#3 – Must-Know GRE Words Set 1
#4 – GRE-Ology
#5 – Reading Apprehension

Today, we’re embarking on a caper to explore crime-related words and how they entered the English language and some interesting perpetrators of said crimes. Since this is our 6th GRE Word List blog, we focus on 6 main words instead of the usual 5! Yay, more content!

The words for this week are not the cheeriest to learn about, but we certainly have some trivia and stories that’ll pique your interest. The words are Forge, Defraud, Libellous, Trafficking, Hijacking, and Genocide.

i. Forge

Part of Speech – verb
Definition – to make falsely; produce an item that’s not genuine.
In different contexts, this word has different meanings.
In verb form
a. To shape a metal
b. To achieve with considerable effort
In noun form
a. A furnace

Origin – from Latin fabricoi meaning ‘to frame, construct, or fabricate.’
Synonyms – counterfeit, falsify, imitate.
Usage – Frank Abagnale frequently forged checks to illegally obtain money from the bank.

To be Frank

Frank Abagnale Jr. was an American fraudster who was an expert at forging checks and claiming money from the banks he submitted them to. Most prominently, he claimed to be a Pan Am pilot, and kept it up for two years, even acting as co-pilot for a few flights, before he had to shift gears to impersonating a different profession.

He subsequently impersonated a pediatrician and an attorney before he was finally caught. Over the years, he allegedly escaped from detainment and prison several times, by impersonating visiting inspectors or simply by giving the accompanying officers the slip.

He wrote a book titled ‘Catch Me If You Can’ in which he detailed his exploits. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks starred in its movie adaptation in 2002.

Frank now runs a financial fraud prevention company and speaks at public events. This is despite several claims and reports of the book being full of exaggerations and falsifications.

Catch him if you can, indeed!

ii. Defraud

Part of Speech – verb
Definition – illegally obtain money from (someone) by deception.
Origin – from Latin “de-” thoroughly+ “fraudare” to cheat, swindle.
Synonyms – swindle, cheat, rob, deceive.
Usage – Jordan Belfort defrauded his investors of millions of dollars by taking advantage of their trust.

Mad(e)off with their money

Bernie Madoff was an American fraudster infamous for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. At its peak, it was estimated to be worth $60 billion USD.

For the uninitiated, a Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud where the fraudsters pay off older investors using the money contributed by new investors, which gives the impression of a legitimate business. As long as most of the investors don’t demand full repayment, and more investors keep joining, the scheme can keep running.

Several analysts and journalists claimed Madoff was fraudulent. Their claims were turned away or ignored. Chief among them was financial analyst Harry Markopolos, who later went on to write a book entitled ‘No One Would Listen.’ If only they’d listened!

His sons, Mark and Andrew, told the police that their father had confessed to them that the whole thing ‘was a big lie.’
The law caught up and apprehended him and sentenced him to 150 years in 2009 for the severity of his crimes. He passed away in April 2021 from chronic kidney failure.

iii. Libelous

Part of Speech – adjective
Definition – defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
Origin – from Middle English “libel“ meaning ‘a written statement, little book’
Synonyms – defamatory, slanderous, derogatory.
Usage – The news article that was written about the presidential candidate was libelous.

Liable for Libel

In medieval times, people who wanted to spread lies or gossip about other people did so by writing small books or pamphlets which they’d distribute to the public. When these were traced back to the author, the victim sued the author for their libels. Over the years, the very act of maliciously spreading information about a person came to be termed ‘libel.’

It is important to note that merely spreading or publishing information that’s unfavorable to the other party cannot be considered libel. It must satisfy the three criteria –
1. The information must be false.
2. The information caused harm.
3. The information published/spread was done so without adequate research towards the veracity of the statement.

For a celebrity/public personality –
They must also prove that the information so published/spread was done with the intent to cause harm.

In modern politics, public officials, candidates, and parties are often targeted for smear campaigns.

Smear means ‘to spread all over’, and a smear campaign is exactly that. Its aim is to spread misinformation, unflattering, out-of-context quotations, and unfavorable facts about a person.

President Grover Cleveland was one such victim. His opponents accused him of fathering an illegitimate child, and came up with the slogan, ‘Ma, ma, where’s my pa?’

When Grover won the presidential election, his supporters came up with a witty retort, ‘Gone to the White House, ha ha ha.’

iv. Trafficking

Part of Speech – verb
Definition – dealing or trading in something illegal.
Origin – from Spanish ‘trafico’, French ‘traffique’ and Italian ‘traffico’
Synonyms – smuggle, bootleg.
Usage – One of PETA’s aims is to help stop the trafficking of exotic animals.

Not that kinda Pirate

In the Prohibition era, soldiers in the American Civil War would hide containers of alcohol in their trouser legs and pants, and sneak them into army camps. This is the origin of the words ‘bootlegging’ and ‘rum-running.’

Around the same time, civilian dealers who used to transport alcohol across boundaries managed to put together customized, souped-up cars to get away from the police and authorities. This was the origin of NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing).

After the repeal of Prohibition, the need for these kinds of cars began to wane.

Soon after, the Great Depression set in, and people had scarce sources of entertainment. Thinking that people would enjoy watching these speedy cars race, Bill France Sr. started NASCAR, and it has since sped away to success!

v. Hijacking

Part of Speech – verb
Definition – an act of unlawfully seizing an aircraft, vehicle, or ship while in transit.
Origin – hijacking has many apocryphal origins, none substantiated.
Since coinage, this word has always been used in the same context. We’ll explore the various theories in detail below.
Synonyms – commandeer, seize, take over, confiscate.
Usage – Terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded the release of their comrades in exchange for safe passage of passengers.

Hi, Jack!

That wasn’t an attempt at a bad pun. No, really.

According to one theory, highway robbers used to walk up to cars, say ‘Hi, Jack!’, stick a gun in the driver’s face, and force them to give up their vehicle.

Another theory originates from France. The French word for forcible removal is ‘échaquer’, used to describe what the peasants used to do to the aristocrats who traveled through their lands in their coaches. The word is derived from the Latin ‘ejecter’, which we Anglophones are more familiar with.

When Englishmen heard of ‘échaquer’, they might’ve misheard it as ‘I Jacques,’ and corrupted it to I Jack, and Hi Jack.

There are a couple more theories that you can check out here.

vi. Genocide

Part of Speech – noun
Definition – the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group.
Origin – From Greek ‘genos’ meaning race, and English ‘cide’ meaning killing.
Synonyms – massacre, ethnic cleansing, holocaust
Usage – The United Nations set up a tribunal to try the army chief for his actions in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Rwandan genocide saw total death tolls as high as 1,100,000 and contributed to the perception of African nations being war-torn and in a state of unrest.

Hotel Rwanda, a 2004 film captured the gravity of the happenings in Rwanda well and is worth a watch. It follows hotelier Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu local, trying to save over 1000 Tutsi and other refugees, including his own wife, from the genocide.

The Holocaust, one of the worst tragedies in the history of mankind, was perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, systematically committing genocide of over 6 million Jews.

One of the greatest films of all time, Schindler’s List is set in that era and is about Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved 1200+ Jewish lives by smuggling them out of Germany.

The 2 films mentioned above are educational to an extent, but also moving stories of heroic, real-life people who proved that they can rise above race, creed, tribe, etc., and be humans first.

That’s it for today, folks.

Watch this video for more!!!

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