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October 2008Words in the NewsTwo thousand three hundred years ago, Aristotle described man as a "political animal." Last month, as interest in the surprise nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket became a national obsession, political observers of the American campaign trail sent vet (together with vetting and vetted) to the #1 position on the Top Twenty list. We are still political animals. But as for the verb to vet, what's the animal connection, you ask? Vetting originates in the animal world. The term vet was first used as a noun in the mid-19th century and was simply a shorter way of saying veterinarian. Since the late 1800s, English speakers have been using the transitive verb vet as shorthand meaning "to provide veterinary care (for an animal)." As a verb, the word soon broadened beyond the animal world to mean "to subject a person (or an animal) to a physical examination or checkup." From there it developed the sense "to subject something to usually expert appraisal or correction," and finally the one we have heard applied to potential candidates for the vice presidency: "to evaluate for possible approval or acceptance." |