yacht meaning of word

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• a vessel used for private cruising, racing, or other noncommercial purposes.

verb (used without object)

• to sail, voyage, or race in a yacht.
• a vessel propelled by sail or power, used esp for pleasure cruising, racing, etc
• short for sand yacht ice yacht
• intr to sail or cruise in a yacht

Other Words From

• yachty adjective
• super·yacht noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of yacht 1

Compare Meanings

How does yacht compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• yacht vs. sailboat

Example Sentences

As City News explained it, the bribes were paid not only in cash but through rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees, boat repairs and more.

In Ashburn, Snyder is always lurking in spirit, even if he is on his 305-foot yacht somewhere in the Aegean.

Driving across country in a gigantic land yacht—with its crushed-velour seats and faux wood siding—was more practical than a two-door hot rod.

Host Jason Moore chats with experts who share tips harvested from their real-life experiences, such as a couple who paid off their $70,000 debt to travel full time and a woman who left her corporate job to work on a yacht.

Until Thursday, when federal agents escorted him off a 150-foot yacht moored in Long Island Sound, the word often used to describe Steve Bannon was “irrelevant.”

Instead the money allegedly was spent on luxury cars and a yacht club membership, among other things.

Loeb owns a $100 million penthouse on Central Park West and a $50 million yacht.

Solaire has set up charging capabilities at a project it built at a yacht club in Massachusetts, for example.

On my way back into town, I walked by the fortress of tents surrounding the harbor, readying for the yacht show.

Newly-minted Londoner, Lindsay Lohan, is currently chilling out on a yacht in Italy.

I heard her say to one of the servants once that my father had been lost on a yacht, and that he was oh, ever such a handsome man.

He owned a 54-ton yacht named the Opal, and attributed the wonderful health he enjoyed to his numerous sea voyages.

Another yacht had started from the old boathouse at about the time our friends and their new-fangled craft got under way.

Caermarthen ordered out his wonderful yacht, and hastened to complain to the King, who was then at Loo.

The yacht had long turned the head of the island and was beating down alongshore in the eastern bay.

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Meaning of yacht – Learner’s Dictionary

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(Definition of yacht from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of yacht

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the materials in which objects are wrapped before being sold

Putting a spanner in the works – Idioms in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

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• 1.1 Etymology
• 1.2 Pronunciation
• 1.3.1 Derived terms
• 1.3.2 Translations
• 1.4.1 Translations
• 1.5 Anagrams
• 2.1 Etymology
• 2.2 Pronunciation
• 2.4 Further reading
• 3.1 Etymology
• 3.2 Pronunciation
• 3.4 References
• 3.5 Further reading
• 4.1 Etymology
• 5.1 Etymology
• 5.3 References
• 6.1 Etymology
• 6.3 References
• 7.1 Alternative forms
• 7.2 Etymology
• 7.3.1 Declension
• 7.3.2 Derived terms
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Circa 1557; variant of yaught , earlier yeaghe ( “ light, fast-sailing ship ” ) , from Dutch jacht ( “ yacht; hunt ” ) , in older spelling jaght(e) , short for jaghtschip ( “ light sailing vessel, fast pirate ship ” , literally “ pursuit ship ” ) , compound of jacht and schip ( “ ship ” ) .

In the 16th century the Dutch built light, fast ships to chase the ships of pirates and smugglers from the coast. The ship was introduced to England in 1660 when the Dutch East India Company presented one to King Charles II, who used it as a pleasure boat, after which it was copied by British shipbuilders as a pleasure craft for wealthy gentlemen.

Pronunciation

• ( UK ) enPR : yŏt , IPA ( key ) : /jɒt/
• ( US ) enPR : yät , IPA ( key ) : /jɑːt/ , /jɑt/

• Rhymes: -ɒt

yacht ( plural yachts )

• 1897 December (indicated as 1898 ), Winston Churchill , chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode , New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company ; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. , →OCLC : The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
• 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers , chapter VI, in The Younger Set , New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company , →OCLC : “I don’t mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,   [ … ] , the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts ,   [ … ] , the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

Derived terms

• motor yacht , motoryacht , MY
• sailing yacht , steam yacht , SY
• yacht person

Translations

yacht ( third-person singular simple present yachts , present participle yachting , simple past and past participle yachted )

• ( intransitive ) To sail , voyage , or race in a yacht .

• Cathy , tachy , tachy- , yatch

Borrowed from English yacht , from Dutch jacht .

• IPA ( key ) : /jɔt/ , /jot/ , ( Canada ) /jat/

yacht   m ( plural yachts )

Further reading

• “ yacht ”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [ Digitized Treasury of the French Language ] , 2012 .

Unadapted borrowing from English yacht .

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈjɔt/ [1]
• Rhymes: -ɔt

yacht   m ( invariable )

• the letter Y in the Italian spelling alphabet
• ^ yacht in Luciano Canepari , Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
• yacht in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line , Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Borrowed from English yacht .

yacht   ? ( plural yachts )

• ( Jersey ) yacht

Norwegian Bokmål

From Dutch jacht , via English yacht .

yacht   m ( definite singular yachten , indefinite plural yachter , definite plural yachtene )

• “yacht” in The Bokmål Dictionary .

Norwegian Nynorsk

yacht   m ( definite singular yachten , indefinite plural yachtar , definite plural yachtane )

• “yacht” in The Nynorsk Dictionary .

Alternative forms

yacht   c

• yacht in Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL )
• yacht in Svensk ordbok ( SO )
• yacht in Svenska Akademiens ordbok ( SAOB )
• yacht in Svenskt nautiskt lexikon (1920)

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SailingEurope Blog - Sailing, Yacht Charter and Beyond

The Yacht – The Meaning and the Origin of the Word

In my language there are a few words for a floating object, or a vessel. According to the size and the purpose of the vessel, those words could be translated as “dinghy”, “yacht”, “boat” or “ship”. Some types of vessels have international names, for example “catamaran” or “hovercraft”.

What Does Yacht Mean?

However, when you say “ yacht” in my language, everyone know exactly what it is about. The word “yacht”, unlike other terms, has certain connotations. It always links with something classy, fancy, wealthy, elegant, and even glamorous.

For example, if you say that you have spent a week aboard a sailing boat , the recations of people will be more or less neutral. On the other hand, if you say that your week aboard a yacht was excellent, many people will become jealous. They will imagine you in a scene from a James Bond movie : aboard a massive white yacht in Monte Carlo , having a cold martini (shaken, not stirred)…

I wanted to share with you this language introduction because I found an interesting story about the word “yacht” and its origin. The word “yacht” became an English and an international term after an event that happened a long time ago.

How Do You Spell ‘Yacht’?

This word comes from the Dutch word “jacht”, which means “hunt”. Furthermore, “ j achtschepen” was the name for narrow, light and very fast sailing boats that the Dutchmen were using for intercepting larger and slower boats and ships.

One of the ‘hunters’ was given as a present to the British king Charles II . In His Majesty’s free time this vessel was not used for intercepting. Instead, was using it for fun. That is why the word “yacht” eventually became the term for vessels/boats made for pleasure.

I would highly appreciate comments from the native speakers of the  English and Dutch languages. Especially since I am not one of them. No matter whether this story is true or not, it still sounds interesting to me.

Find out more about sailing quotes and phrases here .

I wish you a calm sea, a fine wind and a strong mast!

8 thoughts on “The Yacht – The Meaning and the Origin of the Word”

I looked up the origin of the word yacht, and it said it is a mid 16th century, Early Modern Dutch word from ‘jaght,’ from ‘jaghtschip’ meaning “fast pirate ship,” from ‘jaght’ which means “hunting” + ‘schip’ meaning “ship”.

I like the story of King Charles. It makes sense that that is why a yacht has the definite aura of wealth and pleasure!

Almost but not 100%. Actually the verb ‘jagen’ to hunt goes back to middle high German,i.e. Deutsch not Dutch, and before that it was ‘jagon’ in lower high German. But it seems that it all started with Greek and travelled North.

I guess that mid 16th century, the Dutch word jaght or jaghtschip was the word that got picked up. Not the earlier middle high German word where it came from.

Today it is jacht in Dutch, meaning hunting and it also the word for a luxury sailing boat.

In German Jagd is the word for hunt. Germans use the Dutch or English Jacht or Yacht for the boat.

Did the Germans design the original schooners? I think not! Since some Netherlanders speak a form of the Deutschland language, this word is shared (jacht/Dutch—jagd/German: meaning to hunt). It was the Dutch (Netherlanders) who designed the “flyut” or flute sailing ships, l-o-n-g before any British ever thought of such a ship—and—any German. The schooner grew out of the basic designs of the Dutch flute sailing ship (known for it’s speed). The Dutch economy relied heavily on trade and shipping, and were, thus, cutting edge innovators in ship building. Their engineering skills, was and is, plainly seen in their dike system, as well.

My father built a beautiful wooden replica of the”yacht” referred by the author (“Yacht Mary”) which was a present from the city of Amsterdam to King Charles II of England in 1660. They wrecked the ship a few years later (already too much partying on yachts, perhaps?)

I noticed the plaque that came with the model ship spelled the name as “Yatch” Mary. First, I thought, maybe, it was old English or Dutch spelling but it looks like it was just an error.

Nice, We have made an eplainermovie about this subject!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3HDZHF8w2E

In my head yogurt used to be spelled yoghurt and yacht used to be spelled yaught. Am I completely mis-remembering?

Dear Margaret, you are quite right for the spelling of the word yogurt that used to be, and sometimes still is, spelled with its old spelling yoghurt. However, there are no traces of the word yacht to have ever been spelled as yaught, but it would be best to take an etymology expert’s word for it.

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Definition of yacht noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

• How to , INFLATABLE BOATS AND RIBS , MOTOR BOATS , News , SAILBOATS

Yacht : modern meaning of the term and types of boats

• Luca D'Ambrosio
• February 25, 2023

The etymology of the term yacht comes from the Dutch word ‘jacht’, which was used in the past to define the fast sailing vessels used to hunt down pirates along the coasts of northern Europe.

Today, the term ‘yacht’ is used to describe all recreational vessels, whether sailing or motor-powered, with at least one cabin that allows the crew to sleep on board.

There is no established definition for the length of this family of boats, but common usage tends to define a yacht as a vessel longer than 33 feet, or about 10 meters.

As mentioned above, a yacht may be equipped with sailing, motor or mixed propulsion. It can have more than one hull, and if it exceeds 25 meters it also deserves the definition of superyacht . When a yacht is over 50 meters it is called a megayacht and, more and more frequently, when it exceeds 100 meters it becomes a gigayacht.

A yacht normally flies a flag that corresponds to the country where the vessel is registered, not least because, if it does not, it may be captured and taken to the nearest port for ‘flag survey’. As far as international maritime law is concerned, the yacht is considered in all respects to be the territory of the country of the flag it flies, to whose sovereignty the crew is subject.

A yacht flying the flag of a country, unless there is well-founded suspicion of illegal activity, can only be stopped for inspection by the military vessels of that country. When a yacht enters the territorial waters of a country other than that of its flag, it is obliged to fly a courtesy flag.

This is tantamount to a declaration of submission to the navigational laws of the country in which it is sailing.

Sailing and motor-powered yachts

The first major distinction is between sailing yachts and motoryachts. The current worldwide spread of these two families has shifted decisively towards motor yachts, which make up about 75% of the total sailing fleet.

Progress and design have produced many different categories of motor yachts, so let’s discover them together.

Motoryachts

Seen from the stern, a flybridge yacht is often equipped with a “beach club”, a platform that facilitates access to the sea and on which water toys are placed or simply used for diving. A staircase, or even two symmetrical staircases, leads from this platform to the main deck. Sometimes there is a “garage” between these two staircases to house the engine room, a tender and other on-board equipment.

The main deck is characterized by the presence of a helm station, inside of which a large open-space salon houses settees and a galley. The helm station often leads below deck, also known as the lower deck, where the sleeping quarters, or cabins, are normally located.

The foredeck often has a large sundeck bordered by a “bowplate” for hauling anchor. The bow is often “fenced in” by the handrails, which are vital grips for safety at sea.

Let’s get to why a yacht is called a flybridge. The flybridge is an upper deck, open 360 degrees and often covered by a hard-top, a roof usually made of fibreglass. The flybridge usually has an additional helm station to steer from a more panoramic position. An additional galley is often located on the flybridge, as well as additional lounge seating and sun decks.

Open Yachts

An open yacht has no flybridge and its main deck is commonly all open. The helm station can frequently be sheltered by a T-Top. Below deck, depending on the length of the yacht, there are living spaces for the crew which may include dinette, cabins and facilities. Open yachts can be walk-around, i.e. with the possibility for passengers of walking freely around the perimeter of the boat, or they can have an enclosed bow and thus have a raised deck.

A coupe yacht is a yacht without a flybridge, characterized by a sporty design, with the main deck open aft. Very often it has a sunroof and is always equipped with side-decks connecting the stern to the bow. It is a vessel that, depending on its size, is suitable for medium to long-distance cruising.

This is an important type of yacht, which has its origins on the American East Coast where it was used to catch lobsters. It has a romantic, sometimes vintage aesthetic, and is endowed with sinuous lines that, for some, are evocative of the 1950s. Very suitable for cruising and conviviality, thanks also to a large sofa in the cockpit, the lobster is an iconic boat that offers plenty of comfort and space below deck for at least one cabin and one head.

The trawler is essentially a yacht for owners who want to spend a lot of time on board. This is why interior volumes are maximized and the upper deck is always present. Also part of the trawler family are the famous Menorcan boats, inspired by the llaüts of the Menorca island..

Increasingly popular among motor yachts, too, is the multihull, due to its inherent features of stability and capacity. In most cases it is a catamaran designed for long stays at sea.

Sailing yacht

Sailing yachts are vessels where propulsion should mainly rely on the power transmitted by the wind. In the past, sailing yacht engines were low-powered and mainly used for entering and leaving ports, but today, for obvious reasons of practicality and ease of use, they have enough power to make the sailing yacht cruise at a speed at least equal to its theoretical hull speed. This means that sailing yachts can be used efficiently even in the total absence of wind.

A sailing yacht can be rigged in many different ways, these being the most common in modern times:

Sloop : this is the most common rigging on modern boats, characterized by the presence of a single mast with a mainsail and a jib or genoa. Sloop rigging has become popular over the years because it is the easiest to handle with a small crew and also offers the best ease of use/sailing performance ratio.

Cutter : Widely used for long distance sailing, it is characterized by the presence of a mainsail and two jibs rigged on a single mast. Normally the two jibs are a genoa and foresail that are used individually, depending on the weather conditions.

Ketch : this is the most commonly used rig on two-masted sailing yachts, with a mainmast, rigged with a mainsail and genoa, and a mizzenmast, forward of the rudder shaft, rigged with a single mainsail. The splitting of the sails makes this type of yacht suitable for sailing in bad weather.

Yawl : exactly the same as a ketch but with the mizzen mast located aft of the rudder shaft.

Sailing yachts can be monohulls or multihulls, i.e. catamarans or trimarans, but in all cases they can be divided into these categories:

Easy to handle and with plenty of space above and below deck, this type of yacht is normally characterized by an unbalanced length/width ratio favouring the latter, a small sail area and more powerful than average engines.

The interiors are fully equipped and sophisticated, with each cabin often having its own en-suite head.

The deck plan and sailing equipment are simplified, often electrified and minimal.

Cruiser-Racer

This yacht, while still featuring a luxurious and complete interior, also has all the equipment needed for sail fine-tuning and a generous sail area.

This is a category where special attention is paid to both the overall weight of the boat and the hull shape.

The hull lines are in fact designed to enhance performance and, inevitably, this results in a slightly smaller interior than that of pure cruising yachts of the same length.

Racer-Cruiser

The owner who buys this type of yacht has already competed in club competitions and now wants to engage in higher level racing. The hulls are light and can sometimes be made of carbon, and all the sail adjustments are fine-tuned to achieve maximum performance.

The deck plan is definitely designed for crewed racing and the sail area/displacement ratio is unbalanced in favour of the former, making this yacht more difficult to handle with a smaller crew but, conversely, capable of performance similar to a pure racing yacht.

A pure racing yacht is a sailing yacht built exclusively for racing. Free from any commercial constraints, it is built according to the type of race to be competed in and, above all, the rating to be obtained. The interiors of this boat are minimal. This yacht is capable of planing and sailing upwind at very low wind angles, but is almost never used for recreational purposes.

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Yacht definitions: What is a yacht? And does it need to have sails?

• Top stories

By far the most common question we get asked here at Motor Boat & Yachting is ‘how can you call that a yacht if it doesn’t have sails?’ Here we explain why a boat doesn’t need sails to be called a yacht...

What’s in a name? Quite a lot if you’re a yacht! Not only are the names of yachts a source of endless amusement, but by defining your boat as a yacht in the first place, you’re setting up certain expectations.

Yacht definitions: A brief history

Whilst boating for fun dates back to Ancient Egypt and possibly even further than that, the word yacht comes from the Dutch ‘jachtschip’, which means hunting ship. Jachts were originally a class of sailboat used in the 16th century to hunt down enemies of the Dutch Republic.

However by the 19th century the term ‘yachting’ had developed to mean recreational boating in general, and with the advent of steam boats, sails were no longer the only method of propulsion available to Victorian yachtsmen.

Article continues below…

World’s largest superyacht: Everything you need to know about 183m REV

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In the early 20th century (1904 to be precise), our humble magazine was launched under its original title The Motor Boat , but by the 1950s the ‘& Yachting’ suffix had been added to refer to the general pastime enjoyed by motorboat owners. We even reviewed the occasional motorsailer for those who liked to enjoy the benefits of both power and sail.

Today’s Motor Boat & Yachting is dedicated purely to powered leisure vessels from 25-125ft with the occasional foray above and below that when interest dictates. Current editor Hugo Andreae insists that he is ‘terminology agnostic’ saying, “I’m not bothered whether people refer to their boats as yachts, cruisers, power boats or gin palaces just so long as they enjoy using them. But for the record my 22ft Karnic is definitely a gigayacht!”

Editor Hugo’s Karnic 2250 is his family’s pride and joy, but should it be called a yacht?

What makes a yacht, a yacht?

Some would argue that a yacht has to have sails, and as we’ve seen, that was originally the case, but we here at Motor Boat & Yachting beg to differ, as its common to refer to large motorboats as motoryachts, superyachts or even megayachts without any expectation that they would have sails.

Others assert that a yacht should have to have a cabin in order for it to be fully considered a yacht, or that it has to measure at least 10m in length. If that’s the case then some longer narrowboats could be technically considered as yachts, although you’d be hard pushed to find anyone who agrees with that definition.

The final test for something to be considered a yacht is harder to pin down, but it is generally accepted that all yachts have to have a certain aesthetic or architectural appeal in order to earn this haughty moniker.

The advent of internal combustion in the 19th Century allowed motor yachts, like this fine example from Camper & Nicholsons, to be launched. Photo: Getty Images

Whether a boat is worthy of being called a yacht is clearly subjective, but there’s one thing we won’t budge over – it certainly doesn’t have to have sails!

If it’s sailing yachts specifically that you’re interested in, you won’t find many of them here, but we can heartily recommend our sister titles Yachting Monthly and Yachting World , who know much more about them than we do.

Bigger yacht definitions: Superyacht, megayacht or gigayacht?

Beyond the simple term yacht, there are a few other yacht definitions worth clarifying. The most commonly used of which is superyacht .

The debate still rages over what constitutes a superyacht. Any pleasure yacht with a load line length of 24m or more (not length overall or waterline length as is often misquoted) and a gross tonnage of 80GT is classified as a Large Yacht under MCA coding rules, causing a number of additional regulations to kick in, most crucially the requirement for the skipper to hold a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate. This is the closest thing to a technical definition of a superyacht.

At 180m Azzam is currently the largest yacht in the world, but an 183m gigayacht called REV is currently under construction in Norway. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

However, while this used to mean most leisure boats with an overall length (LOA) of 80ft or more fell into the Large Yacht category, yards have become so adept at designing bigger boats with a load line length of just under 24m that many craft with an LOA of 90ft or more still count as regular pleasure vessels.

For that reason some people prefer to use the simpler definition of a superyacht being any privately owned vessel with an LOA of 100ft or more. Even then some would argue that a true superyacht should be a custom built yacht of at least 35m or 120ft.

Such is the inflationary pressure on yacht sizes and terminology that the term superyacht itself has begun to lose currency among the yachting elite. Owners of craft over 50m now use the term megayacht to categorise their larger vessels, while the lesser-spotted gigayacht is reserved for yachts over 100m.

Fewer than 100 gigayachts have been built to date, making this the rarest of rare breeds. That said with the world’s largest yacht now measuring over 183m, it’s surely only a matter of time before the 200m mark will be broken and yet another term will be needed. Got any suggestions? Drop us an e-mail: [email protected]

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“Yacht.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/yacht. Accessed 26 Jul. 2024.

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What does the noun yacht mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun yacht . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun yacht ?

How is the noun yacht pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun yacht come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun yacht is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for yacht is from before 1584, in the writing of S. Borough.

yacht is a borrowing from Dutch.

Etymons: Dutch jaght(e .

Nearby entries

• yabber, v. 1841–
• yabbering, n. 1839–
• yabble, n. 1827–
• yabble, v. 1808–
• yabbler, n. 1901–
• yabby, n. 1887–
• yabby, v. 1941–
• yabbying, n. 1934–
• yabu, n. 1753–
• yacca, n. 1843–
• yacht, n. a1584–
• yacht, v. 1836–
• yacht basin, n. 1929–
• yacht broker, n. 1882–
• yachtdom, n. 1901–
• yachter, n. 1828–
• yachtery, n. 1861–
• yachtian, n. 1842–
• yachtie, n. 1874–
• yachting, n. 1836–
• yachting, adj. 1847–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for yacht, n..

yacht, n. was first published in 1921; not yet revised.

yacht, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into yacht, n. in July 2023.

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Citation details

Factsheet for yacht, n., browse entry.

1550s, yeaghe "a light, fast-sailing ship," from Norwegian jaght or early Dutch jaght , both from Middle Low German jacht , shortened form of jachtschip "fast pirate ship," literally "ship for chasing," from jacht "chase," from jagen "to chase, hunt," from Old High German jagon , from Proto-Germanic *yago- , from PIE root *yek- (2) "to hunt" (source also of Hittite ekt- "hunting net"). Related: Yachting ; yachtsman .

Entries linking to yacht

Old English huntian "chase game" (transitive and intransitive), perhaps developed from hunta "hunter," and related to hentan "to seize," from Proto-Germanic *huntojan (source also of Gothic hinþan "to seize, capture," Old High German hunda "booty"), which is of uncertain origin.

Not the usual Germanic word for this, which is represented by Dutch jagen , German jagen (see yacht (n.)). General sense of "search diligently" (for anything) is recorded from c. 1200. Related: Hunted ; hunting . To hunt (something) up "search for until found" is from 1791. Parlor game hunt the slipper is attested from 1766.

also jaeger , "German sharpshooter," 1776, from German Jäger , literally "huntsman," from jagen "to hunt," from Old High German jagon , related to Old Frisian jagia , Dutch jagen "to hunt," Old Norse jaga "to drive, to move to and fro" (see yacht (n.)). Applied to riflemen and sharpshooters in the German and Austrian armies. Englished as yager , yaeger from 1804.

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"I Rebuke You in the Name of Jesus" — Meaning Behind Sonya Massey's Final Words

Massey's father, James Wilburn, said his daughter's final words were a "premonition" of her being allegedly killed by police.

Jul. 23 2024, Published 2:21 p.m. ET

Content Warning: This article mentions police brutality and racism.

The body cam footage from a Black woman, Sonya Massey , being shot by police in her home while responding to her 911 call shows her chilling yet powerful final words. Massey had called police to report a potential "prowler," per CNN , which resulted in two Sangamon County sheriff's deputies arriving at her home.

In the body cam footage , Massey can be heard conversing with one of the officers.

She then proceeds to enter her kitchen to turn off a pot of boiling water. After picking up the pot, one of the officers, Sean Grayson, steps back and responds with, "away from your hot steaming water." Massey then responds with, "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus." The officer, apparently uncertain as to what Massey had said, replies, "huh," to which she repeats the phrase. Shortly after, she was shot dead in her home. Now, many are wondering what the phrase means. Here's an explainer.

What does "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus" mean?

The phrase "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus" has been popular in the Christian community. By definition, "to rebuke " means "to express strong disapproval" of someone's choices or behavior. Some Christians use the phrase to rebuke Satan and what they may deem Satanic practices.

According to several religious leaders, including Verse by Verse Ministry , "rebuking the devil" isn't supported in Biblical passages.

TW: A woman says, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” and the officer that SHE called responds with gunfire…If that’s not demonic, I don’t know what is. Justice for Sonya Massey😔🕊️ pic.twitter.com/OR56gZrpue — Dometi Pongo (@Dometi_) July 23, 2024

Today, many people casually say "I rebuke [something] in the name of Jesus" to mean they strongly reject or oppose it, often invoking spiritual authority to ward off negativity or harm.

People also employ it in everyday situations to firmly dismiss or reject something undesirable, often without the solemnity or religious intent it once held.

Those following Sonya Massey's case believe her final words were intentional.

While many have said "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus" about Beyoncé concerts or other frivolous things, many feel Massey saying the phrase to Grayson and his partner was meant in the religious sense.

The body cam footage showed Massey saying "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus" to the officers after Grayson's partner stepped away from her. After hearing her words and noting that Massey was moving toward a pot of boiling water, Grayson replied, "You better f--king not, or I swear to God I’ll f--king shoot you in the f--king face."

Massey quickly said "I'm sorry" to Grayson before the deputies yelled at her to "drop the pot." Massey was then shot three times before calling for emergency services.

That cop being triggered to that degree by “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” is absolutely wild. — AT (@primediscussion) July 23, 2024

Massey's father, James Wilburn, told CBS News he believed his daughter had a "premonition" that she was in danger and called out to God in her final moments.

According to NBC Chicago , Grayson, 30, is now facing murder charges for the fatal shooting of Massey. An Illinois grand jury indicted the former officer a week before the body cam footage went viral.

If you are looking for ways to donate your time or money to Black Lives Matter and other antiracist organizations, we have created a list of resources to get you started.

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Every symbol at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games has a story. 

The mascot, logo, slogan and theme song are all carefully designed and curated to represent the spirt and union of the Olympic Games. 

Here is everything you need to know about the unique symbols of the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

What is the meaning of the Paris Olympics logo?

The logo for the 2024 Games combines three separate symbols – the gold medal, the flame and Marianne. 

The gold medal is meant to symbolize achievement and honor the hard work of the athletes who will compete on the world’s biggest stage.

The flame is meant to represent the collective shared energy that drives the international feat of the Olympics. 

Marianne personifies France itself. She is a symbol of the French Republic and embodies the values that define sports. Marianne is a common figure in everyday life for the French, appearing on stamps and outside of town halls. In this way, she serves as a reminder that the Games are conducted both for and with the people. 

This marks the first time in history that the same emblem is being used for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

What is the mascot for the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Over the years, Olympic mascots have captivated audiences from around the world. In Paris, the official mascot are the Phryges.

The Phrygian cap is a symbol of freedom, revolution and the French Republic. It has served as a symbol of many major events throughout French history dating back centuries. Archives show records of the Phrygian cap being worn during the construction of the Notre Dame cathedral, the French Revolution, the construction of the Eiffel Tower and the 1924 Olympic Games. Today in France, the cap can be seen in town halls, on national stamps and as part of national school curriculums.

The Phryges are small, red, adorable hats – the latest in a line of endearing Olympic mascots over the years.

Is there a theme song for the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Victor le Masne was selected to compose the theme song for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Known for his talent and innovation in the field of music, le Masne wrote a song that combines symphonic and electronic sounds that are meant to represent the dynamic spirt of the Games.

The name of the theme song is “Parade.” It was performed live on May 8th when the Olympic Flame arrived in Marseille to mark the start of the Games celebration in France. The theme song will continue to be played throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Le Masne has played a crucial role in the Paris Olympics from the start as he worked on the handover ceremony between the 2020 Tokyo Games and 2024 Paris Games.

What is the official slogan of the 2024 Paris Olympics?

“Games wide open” is the slogan of the Olympics this year.

President of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tony Estanguet, said the following about the slogan: “To deliver inspiring Games that will help take the Olympic and Paralympic Movement into a new era. Bold and creative Games that dare to take a step outside the box, to challenge the current models, our ways of seeing things, our paradigms; to give us the opportunity to come together, to be proud together, to experience together.”

What do the Olympic rings represent?

While the Paris Olympics have a unique logo specific to the Games, the five multicolored, interlocked rings will always serve as the most universal symbol of the Olympics.

The rings were originally designed by Baron de Coubertin (Charles Pierre de Fredy), who is known as the founding father of the modern Olympic Games. 

The five rings and colors were selected to pay tribute to the five regions of the world – Australia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia – that the athletes came from. The colors, including blue, yellow, black, green, red and the white background were designed to represent the colors of the flags of all nations at that time.

The rings made their debut at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium and have served as the backdrop of the Games ever since.

Right now, the Olympic rings are located at Trocadero Plaza, which is the site of the Opening Ceremony’s finale celebrations, overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Incredible sighting in Paris as the moon passes through the Olympic rings. 🌕 ✨ #ParisOlympics 📽️: @stylinbyaylin pic.twitter.com/KUkkI2QjUK — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 16, 2024

Why do they carry a torch at the Olympics?

The Olympic Flame and Olympic torch relay began at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The torch was first lit in April at the site of ancient Olympia, which is the birthplace of the Games. After being relayed through Greece, the torch arrived at Marseille on May 8 and has since passed through different regions of France. It will arrive at the Seine ahead of the Opening Ceremony.

The International Committee said the traditions of the flame and torch relay are meant to symbolize the “peace and friendship among nations since antiquity." 

For these Olympics, hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg will do his best not to "Drop It Like It's Hot" while carrying the Olympic flame through the streets of Saint-Denis, the final stop before the Eiffel Tower. Snoop will mark the 67th leg of the flame’s journey. 

The final torchbearer, who will take the flame from Snoop and light the Olympic cauldron on the night of the Opening Ceremony has yet to be revealed.

U gots to do it!! 👊🏿🇺🇸🔥🔥🏃🏿🥇🇫🇷 Will u be watchin?? #FollowTheDogg #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/3l12Cj74Cp — Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) July 23, 2024

Note: Some components of NBCOlympics.com may not be optimized for users browsing with Internet Explorer 11, 10 or older browsers or systems.

Definition of 'yacht'

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Carlos Lozada

What Trump Means When He Tells Us to ‘Fight’

By Carlos Lozada

Opinion Columnist

The words poured out, instinctively, each one punctuated with a pump of Donald Trump’s fist and a grimace of his blood-streaked face, an answer to the staccato of rifle shots that had been fired his way barely a minute earlier.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The image of Trump in that moment — the American flag behind him, the Secret Service around him, the piercing blue sky above him — has become an indelible piece of our political iconography, on home pages today and in history books forever. But those few words, delivered to the thousands of rally goers in Butler, Pa., and to the millions more who watched the scene looping on their screens, are no less emblematic, no less essential to grasping Trump’s meaning and message.

With that terse, defiant refrain, Trump accomplished many things at once. He offered reassurance that he remained both safe and himself; he issued a directive for how supporters should react to those who attack him; and he captured the emotional state of a nation that was on edge well before the horror of an attempted assassination. Trump’s social-media posts and interviews since the shooting have stressed the need for national unity, but unity was not his first impulse.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” is the sound of Donald Trump returning fire.

In the canon of Trump books and speeches, “fight” is a constant byword, but it has meant radically different things in different contexts. In scripted moments meant to convey suitably presidential sensibilities, Trump is fighting for others — whether the American people or those the nation has forgotten. In moments of political or legal crisis, when Trump feels besieged, his call to “fight” becomes personal. It is not a fight for others, but a battle for himself, one in which the people are enlisted in Trump’s wars, persuaded that his causes are their own. Eventually, the causes fall away, and the leader becomes all there is to fight for.

“When people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard,” Trump writes in “The Art of the Deal,” published in 1987 and still the foundational document of Trump studies. He also complains that attorneys are too quick to settle disputes. “I’d rather fight than fold,” he says later in the book. Fold once, he argues, and soon you’ll be known for it.

Those early fights in “The Art of the Deal” focus on winning tax breaks and fending off lawsuits. But in his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” Trump calls for loftier confrontations. The American dream is dying because of excessive regulation, onerous taxes, racism and discrimination, Trump writes, and while the United States sends troops around the world, it can’t seem to look after its own kids at home. “What about their American dreams?” he asks. He was considering a run for president, he explains, because “when you mess with the American dream, you’re on the fighting side of Trump.”

The sentiment recurred in 2016 when he accepted the Republican presidential nomination. “To every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future,” Trump declared in Cleveland, “I say these words to you tonight: I’m with you, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you.”

Early in his presidency, however, many of Trump’s fights became more overtly self-serving, not about battling for the people but about brawling for himself, often in narrow or petty terms.

After the news emerged in 2017 that Trump had asked the F.B.I. director to drop an investigation into his first national security adviser, the president complained in a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy that no politician had ever “been treated worse or more unfairly” than he had. Sometimes the only answer, Trump said, is to “put your head down and fight, fight, fight.” And when the president issued some bizarre Twitter posts criticizing Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough of MSNBC in crudely insulting terms, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, then the White House press secretary, defended Trump’s fighting spirit.

“When he gets attacked, he’s going to hit back,” she said. “I think the American people elected someone who’s smart, who’s tough, who’s a fighter, and that’s Donald Trump. And I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire.”

And it’s no surprise that Trump judges those around him on their ability to fight, too. When Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was threatened by allegations of sexual misconduct, Trump phoned his nominee. He wanted to know if Kavanaugh was “prepared to fight,” Peter Baker and Susan Glasser write in “The Divider,” their history of the Trump presidency. “Absolutely,” was his reply. Only when the nominee lashed out at the Senate Judiciary Committee with a display of “raw outrage and Trumpian-style fury,” the authors write, did Kavanaugh salvage his nomination.

Trump’s choice of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate carries a similar rationale. “He’s a fearless MAGA fighter, he fights like crazy,” Trump said in a 2022 rally for Vance’s Senate campaign. Donald Trump Jr., who is close friends with Vance and played a key role in his selection, explained on Monday why the senator made sense for the ticket, despite having been an early Trump critic. “He’s just been an incredible fighter ever since he saw that [Trump] was real,” Trump Jr. told CBS News.

Vance’s Trump-friendly positions on trade, immigration, Ukraine and the culture wars, as well as his skills on television, may make the senator an appealing fighter for the 2024 campaign — but so does his nonchalance about the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Vance is not just a dedicated warrior for the causes of economic populism and the working class, but a willing one in the interests of Trump himself.

This is how Trump’s fights blur together. The battles on behalf of the people and those on behalf of the candidate become a single war, inextricable.

“They are coming after me because I am fighting for you,” Trump told the crowd gathered at the March for Life in January 2020, as the first impeachment proceedings against him were underway. He reiterated the idea when accepting the party’s nomination for president that year. “From the moment I left my former life behind, and a good life it was, I have done nothing but fight for you,” Trump said. “Always remember: They are coming after me, because I am fighting for you.”

It’s a notion Trump may revisit once more in his convention speech on Thursday night. His opponents are not just his own; they belong to everyone. When he is attacked, then, everyone must join his fight.

Trump’s “fightingness,” as Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business host and former economic official in the Trump White House, has called it, is a defining attribute of Trumpism and vital to the former president’s appeal. “Even those that don’t know him or like him know he’s a fighter,” Kudlow said in 2023. “No one has the fightingness that Donald Trump has.”

In contrast, anyone seeking to limit Trump’s ambitions or question his fights is derided as weak and insufficiently devoted. When a cadre of conspiracy-minded election deniers proposed in a December 2020 Oval Office meeting that Trump could use the military to recount the vote in key states, Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, objected that the president lacked the authority for such actions. “You know, Pat, at least they want to fight for me,” Trump told him, according to Baker and Glasser. “You don’t even fight for me. You just tell me everything I can’t do.”

Here, fighting for Trump means allowing him to do as he pleases, even undermining a central and quite minimal definition of democracy — respect for the will of the voters.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump called on his followers to fight for the same purpose. In his speech that morning just outside the White House, Trump mocked Republicans for “fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back.” (That was one of 20 times Trump used some version of the word “fight” in his speech, even though it only appeared twice in his prepared remarks, according to the House select committee that investigated the Capitol assault.) And Trump also uttered the words that obliterated any distinction between the fights for his country and those for himself: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

With that, Trump made clear that he is more than a combatant in battles over politics or policy; he offered himself as the sole reason for our fights. If one man alone can channel the people and embody the nation, then without that man in power, the people and the nation are both lost. Why wouldn’t his supporters fight like hell?

“Fight for Trump!” the crowds cheered that morning, as Trump nodded approvingly, before they marched to the Capitol and acted out that imperative. Now, at the convention in Milwaukee, the chant has been truncated into a rhythmic, clenched-fist, pantomime of Trump’s response to the violence of Butler, Pa.

I think of Trump crouched on that stage last week, bleeding and weighed down by Secret Service agents, and can imagine the old grievances rushing through his mind. Russia and Mueller. Investigations and impeachments. Trials and convictions. The defeat of 2020, that humiliation he refused to accept. And now this — an attempt on his life, not just fighting words but a violent deed, at a campaign rally of all places, that most Trumpian of settings, where the bond with his followers should be affirmed, not threatened. With Trump, no other reaction seems possible: Fight!

What are his supporters fighting for when they take up the chant now? Well, what’ve you got? Is it a fight for an American dream, or the man, or the chance for power once again? A fight against the progressive left or the cultural elite? A fight against a sitting president whose perceived feebleness has only grown starker with his opponent’s display of strength?

I’m not sure it matters. In a convention that celebrates the melding of a party and its leader, it’s the ultimate tribute to Donald Trump that his call to fight has become more than an impulsive retort to a moment of great national and personal peril. Trump’s fighting words are an encompassing worldview, not a means of politics but its end, not the last resort for a party but the default posture of a man and his movement.

Source images by Pool, The Washington Post, Michael M. Santiago, Gina Ferazzi, Nathan Howard, Allen J. Schaben, SOPA Images via Getty Images.

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Carlos Lozada is an Opinion columnist and a co-host of the weekly “Matter of Opinion” podcast for The Times, based in Washington, D.C. He is the author, most recently, of “ The Washington Book : How to Read Politics and Politicians.”  @ CarlosNYT

How Kamala Harris became part of Charli XCX's 'Brat' summer

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has been bolstered by an unexpected group of supporters: Charli XCX fans. 

Excitement around the Harris campaign grew on social media after people began editing viral videos and memes fusing songs from British pop star Charli XCX’s album “Brat” with clips of Harris throughout her career.

After Charli XCX appeared to endorse Harris on Sunday, writing “Kamala IS Brat,” Harris’ campaign embraced the moment, reposting the show of support , using the album’s signature green color and typeface in one of its social media profiles and posting “Brat”-themed memes.

“Brat,” which touches on womanhood, insecurity, competition, motherhood, relationships, partying and other topics, debuted June 7. Since then, social media users have declared that they are celebrating a “brat summer,” meaning they are embracing being earnest and unapologetically themselves.

The pairing of Harris memes with “Brat” fandom has surged since Sunday, when President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race, but the idea had been percolating for at least the last several weeks.

Abigail De Kosnik, an associate professor at the Berkeley Center for New Media at the University of California, Berkeley, said Harris is “plugged in” to popular culture in a way other Democratic candidates in the past haven’t been. That is a refreshing change for voters who often view Democrats as “staid,” De Kosnik said.

The “Brat”-Harris crossover trend was popularized by creators like University of Delaware senior Ryan Long, who went viral after he posted a mashup of the Charli XCX song “Von Dutch” with clips of Harris on July 3.

“I’ve never seen people so excited for a candidate,” said Long, who described himself as an enthusiastic Harris supporter for years. “People were pessimistic about Joe Biden, but there is so much enthusiasm right now over Kamala. I really hope that she can capitalize off of it and get a landslide win.”

Long said he believes the Harris memes signal that young voters embraced her as a candidate even before Biden endorsed her presidential campaign. 

The “Brat” Harris edits have taken over TikTok, X and Instagram, sometimes paired with the hashtag “Brat election.” Sound bites of Harris laughing have been used in video edits, as well as her memorable quotes like “I love Venn diagrams” and “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”

Harris, who has spawned multiple memes during her tenure as vice president, has gotten the approval of Stan Twitter , a community of various devout fandoms on X (formerly Twitter) that often mobilizes to support certain artists. Long said Harris memes have been a part of Stan Twitter for years, resurging in popularity every few months and paving the way for a quick embrace of her presidential candidacy. A clip of Harris’ laugh has been edited into numerous pop songs by various fandoms and shared on X . 

Representatives for Charli XCX declined to comment. A representative for Harris didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“‘Brat’ is one of the top albums in the world, and it’s been going super big online,” Long said. “Kamala does such a good job at embodying what people call ‘Brat summer.’ The way she presents herself, she’s happy, laughing, she’ll dance. She is like a walking content farm.”

Charli XCX previously described a brat as someone who likes to party, “says some dumb things sometimes” and is “honest, blunt and a little bit volatile.” Harris’ professional image doesn’t necessarily match the messy party girl ethos of “Brat,” but her distinct quotes and animated laughter have gotten unique attention. Some detractors have said her demeanor is bizarre, while supporters have framed the traits as endearing. 

Aly McCormick, 21, was inspired by Long’s “Von Dutch” Harris edit when she decided to make a Harris video edit of her own set to the “Brat” song “360.” McCormick posted it on TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. 

“Kamala brings in such hope and light, because she’s having fun, and we haven’t really had that in politics for a while,” McCormick, a rising senior in political communications at George Washington University, told NBC News. “I feel very hopeful.”

De Kosnik said the alignment of the Harris campaign with “Brat” casts Harris as a worthy opponent to former President Donald Trump in November. She drew a comparison between Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who co-opted Trump’s insult “ nasty woman ” as a feminist retort when she ran for president in 2016. Trump has similarly tried to call Harris names, calling her “Laughing Kamala” at a recent rally. 

“I think there’s some edge to Harris being the first Black and Asian American woman candidate for president of the United States that kind of just puts her automatically in that defiant kind of oppositional space in the culture,” De Kosnik said. 

A typical “brat girl sees Kamala and sees something of herself in Kamala,” she added.

“‘Brat’ just sets Kamala Harris’ campaign up for that defiant stance that says, ‘We’re not perfect, and you’re going to call us out on everything, but we’re still winning because we’re honest and we’re just ourselves, and we’re going to take this whole thing,’” De Kosnik said. 

“Brat” isn’t the only soundtrack for fan video edits of Harris. American pop musician Kesha has also remixed her laugh with the intro of the 2011 song “Blow,” which has been used as the audio for over 1,300 TikTok posts, including two from Kesha herself that have almost 3 million views each. Another popular track for Harris videos is the song “Femininomenon” by Chappell Roan, whose summer success alongside Charli XCX has defined an era of pop underdogs’ rising to the top. Harris has also previously been celebrated by celebrities like Beyoncé and Cardi B.

But Charli XCX is in a special position in today’s pop world, having toiled for over a decade before reaching an exuberant cultural peak with “Brat” this summer. Harris fans’ adopting “Brat” memes may cast Harris in the same light.

De Kosnik said many so-called brats can identify with Harris because they come from marginalized communities and understand what it feels like to be discounted.

“The brat girl is sort of like the unexpected leader, the unexpected winner,” De Kosnik said. 

Kat Tenbarge is a tech and culture reporter for NBC News.

Daysia Tolentino is a culture and internet reporter for NBC News.

J.D. Vance once called VP Kamala Harris a 'childless cat lady.' What does that mean?

Republican vice presidential candidate  Sen. J.D. Vance called Vice President Kamala Harris a "childless cat lady" in 2021 and it has recently resurfaced online.

You may have heard the term before and if you haven't, you may be wondering, what's so wrong with a lady who likes cats?

What does it mean to call someone a cat lady? Here's what we know.

J.D. Vance's 'cat lady' comment

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on his evening show back in July 2021, Vance took aim at Harris and other democratic politicians for not having children.

"We are effectively run in this country … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too,"  Vance told Carlson . "It's just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children."

This statement is not entirely true as Harris has  two stepchildren  with her husband,  Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Pete Buttigieg adopted twins with his husband in August 2021. Buttigieg and his husband were in the middle of the adoption process when Vance made those comments.

What does the term 'cat lady' mean?

Cat lady is typically used as a derogatory term used toward women who have chosen to not have children. While men who do not have children are often lauded and called bachelors.

"Women often are likened to cats in a pejorative way — for example, a common insult is to call a woman 'catty,' said Leora Tanenbaum , author of "I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet." "With a man, on the other hand, you would never use that word and are more likely to describe him as 'spiteful.' And we describe arguments between women as 'catfights,' while an argument between men is just, well, an 'argument.'"

Women  have long been treated differently in society.

"The expectation that all women will and should become mothers was forged by a long history that understood reproduction as American women’s primary civic contribution," says  Peggy Heffington , an assistant senior instructional professor at the University of Chicago who teaches and writes on feminism, women's movements and motherhood in American and European history.

Vance's comments imply that anyone who is not a parent, who he deems to be a "childless cat lady" should not be running this country.

More: Kamala Harris, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston and when we reduce women to 'childless cat ladies'

Swifties respond to the negative connotations for "cat ladies"

The "cat lady" insult specifically carries with it some connotations. "You are physically unattractive, or a workaholic, which makes you a deviant person; no wonder you have a pet cat, because that’s the only one who loves you," Tanenbaum says. Tell that to  all the Swifties  who bought tickets to her groundbreaking  Eras tour  and fired up social media retorts to Vance's comments.

Who are other 'childless cat ladies'?

While Swift is one of the most notable 'childless cat ladies' due to the recent success of her " Eras Tour ," many other famous women are considered to be as well.

Jennifer Anniston, Jennifer Coolidge, Helen Mirren, Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Oprah Winfrey and many others are all successful women without children.

Aniston called out Vance on her Instagram story after his comments resurfaced: "All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too." 

Others are reading: Internet warns JD Vance after video resurfaces implying Kamala Harris is childless cat lady

Katie Wiseman is a trending news intern at IndyStar. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @itskatiewiseman .

What is Project 2025?

It’s a blueprint for what a second Trump administration could look like, dreamed up by his allies and former aides.

If Donald Trump struggled somewhat in his first administration to move the country dramatically to the right, he’ll be ready to go in a second term.

That’s the aim behind Project 2025, a comprehensive plan by former and likely future leaders of a Trump administration to remake America in a conservative mold while dramatically expanding presidential power and allowing Trump to use it to go after his critics.

The plan is gaining attention just as Trump is trying to moderate his stated positions to win the election, so he’s criticized some of what’s in it as “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” and insisted that neither he nor his campaign had anything to do with Project 2025.

Still, what’s in this document is a pretty good indicator of what a second Trump presidency could look like. Here’s what Project 2025 is and how it could reshape America.

It’s a blueprint for a second Trump administration

The centerpiece is a 900-page plan that calls for extreme policies on nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives, from mass deportations, to politicizing the federal government in a way that would give Trump control over the Justice Department, to cutting entire federal agencies, to infusing Christian nationalism into every facet of government policy by calling for a ban on pornography and promoting policies that encourage “marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.”

This isn’t coming directly from the Trump campaign. But it should be taken seriously because of the people who wrote it, analysts say. The main organization behind the plan, the Heritage Foundation, is a revolving door for Trump officials (and Heritage is a sponsor of the Republican National Convention, which will hand him the nomination next week).

“This is meant as an organized statement of the Trumpist, conservative movement, both on policy and personnel, and politics,” said William Galston, head of governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

2024 presidential election

Project 2025 calls for abortion limits, slashing climate change and LGBTQ health care funding, and much more

A few of the highlights:

Remake the federal workforce to be political : Instead of nonpartisan civil servants implementing policies on everything from health to education and climate, the executive branch would be filled with Trump loyalists. “It is necessary to ensure that departments and agencies have robust cadres of political staff,” the plan says. That means nearly every decision federal agencies make could advance a political agenda — as in whether to spend money on constituencies that lean Democratic. The project calls for cutting LGBTQ health programs, for example.

Cut the Education Department: Project 2025 would make extensive changes to public schooling, cutting longtime low-income and early education federal programs like Head Start, for example, and even the entire Education Department. “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated,” the plan reads.

Give Trump power to investigate his opponents : Project 2025 would move the Justice Department, and all of its law enforcement arms like the FBI, directly under presidential control. It calls for a “top-to-bottom overhaul” of the FBI and for the administration to go over its investigations with a fine-toothed comb to nix any the president doesn’t like. This would dramatically weaken the independence of federal law enforcement agencies. “There’s going to be an all-out assault on the Department of Justice and the FBI,” said Galston, of Brookings. “It will mean tight White House control of the DOJ and FBI.”

Make reproductive care, particularly abortion pills, harder to get : It doesn’t specifically call for a national abortion ban, but abortion is one of the most-discussed topics in the plan, with proposals throughout encouraging the next president “to lead the nation in restoring a culture of life in America again.” It would do this by prosecuting anyone mailing abortion pills (“Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world,” the plan says). It would raise the threat of criminalizing those who provide abortion care by using the government to track miscarriage, stillbirths and abortions, and make it harder to get emergency contraceptive care covered by insurance. It would also end federal government protections for members of the military and their families to get abortion care.

Crack down on even legal immigration : It would create a new “border patrol and immigration agency” to resurrect Trump’s border wall, build camps to detain children and families at the border, and send out the military to deport millions of people who are already in the country illegally ( including dreamers ) — a deportation effort so big that it could put a major dent in the U.S. economy. “Illegal immigration should be ended, not mitigated; the border sealed, not reprioritized,” the plan says.

Slash climate change protections : Project 2025 calls for getting rid of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which forecasts weather and tracks climate change, describing it as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.” It would increase Arctic drilling and shutter the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change departments, all while making it easier to up fossil fuel production.

Ban transgender people from the military and consider reinstating the draft : “Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service,” it reads. The author of this part of the plan led the Defense Department at the end of Trump’s presidency, and he told The Washington Post that the government should seriously consider mandatory military service.

How all of this would be implemented

A huge part of this project is to recruit and train people on how to pull the levers of government or read the law in novel ways to carry out these dramatic changes to federal policy. There’s even a place on the plan’s website where you can submit your résumé.

But there are some major hurdles to getting the big stuff done, even if Trump and Republicans win control of Washington next year. For one, Trump doesn’t appear to agree with everything in it. His campaign platform barely mentions abortion, while Project 2025 zeroes in on it repeatedly.

Also, some of these ideas are impractical or possibly illegal. Analysts are divided about whether Trump can politicize the civil workforce to fire them at will, for example. And the plan calls for using the military to carry out mass deportations on a historic scale , which could be constitutionally iffy.

Ominously, one of the project’s leaders opened the door to political violence to will all of this into being: “We are in the process of the second American revolution,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts warned recently, “which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.”

Why Project 2025 is getting so much attention right now

It’s not unusual for wannabe administration officials to plan for how they’d govern once they get back in power. But what is unusual is how dramatic and unapologetically extreme many of these proposals are.

And the Biden campaign — which is obviously struggling right now with existential questions about its nominee — sees this as an easy target to campaign on.

Democrats are circulating a survey from a liberal organization that suggests talking about Project 2025 as a “takeover” of American government by Trumpists resonates with voters.

“It’s like reading a horror novel,” said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. “Each page makes you want to read the next one, but when you finish reading it, you’re scared and disgusted.”

That’s much to the frustration of the Trump campaign, which doesn’t want such specific (and politically unpopular) ideas out there pegged to his campaign, as he’s trying to moderate some of his positions to win the election.

“It makes no sense to put all the crazy things you’ll be attacked for down on paper while you’re running,” a Trump adviser told The Washington Post recently .

But it’s fair to think of Project 2025 as a pretty good indicator of what a second Trump presidency would look like, analysts say.

“It’s not like Trump is going to hand out this booklet to his Cabinet on Day One and say, ‘Here you go,’” said Michael Strain, the director of economic policy studies at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “But it reflects real goals of important people in Trump’s community.”

A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Strain as Michel. The article has been corrected.

Election 2024

Follow live updates on the 2024 election from our reporters on the campaign trail and in Washington.

Kamala Harris: A majority of Democratic delegates have pledged to support Harris , signaling she is likely to secure the presidential nomination next month. We broke down seven options for her vice-presidential pick .

Biden drops out: President Biden addressed the nation , seeking to define his legacy and explain his decision to exit the presidential race. Here’s what happened in the hours before Biden posted a letter announcing his decision to end his campaign .

Trump VP pick: Donald Trump has chosen Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) as his running mate , selecting a rising star in the Republican Party and a previously outspoken Trump critic who in recent years has closely aligned himself with the former president.

Presidential election polls: Here’s what voters think about Harris replacing Biden and how Harris performs against Trump in recent polls .

Olympics opening ceremony: Highlights, replay, takeaways from Paris

In a first-of-its-kind opening ceremony, the 2024 Paris Olympics officially began Friday on the River Seine, with athletes from the 206 participating nations forming a photogenic flotilla through the City of Light.

This is the first time the ceremony has not been held inside a stadium. Instead, the city’s  iconic landmarks  provided a stunning backdrop for the parade of nations, with the athletes traveling on boats along the six-kilometer route through Paris from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Trocadero.

Mother Nature didn't fully cooperate, but thousands of Olympians, performers and spectators alike didn't let the precipitation rain on their parade. A rainy early forecast gave way to cloudy skies and an eventual heavy downpour, but cheering crowds still lined the banks of the Seine and fountains heralded the arrival of the athletes.

OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY: Recap of Paris' parade on the river

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2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

LeBron James, Coco Gauff carry USA flag

NBA superstar  LeBron James , 39, and tennis champion Coco Gauff , 20, led the American delegation into the Games in a vote by their fellow Team USA athletes.

"It’s a great opportunity for myself to continue to inspire the next generation and super excited to be here," said James, a senior member of the U.S. men's basketball team who is participating in his fourth Olympic Games.

Gauff is the USA's youngest Olympic flag bearer in history. She was supposed to represent the U.S. in Tokyo in 2021, but was forced to withdraw after she tested positive for COVID-19 days before her scheduled departure.

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Olympic greats carry Olympic torch to cauldron

Four Olympic legends — Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal, U.S. tennis player Serena Williams, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci and U.S. track and field star Carl Lewis — helped carry the Olympic flame to its final destination. They did so in style, on a French speedboat that looked straight out of a "James Bond" film.

Giannis Antetokounmpo makes history for Greece

Greece (with flagbearer Giannis Antetokounmpo ) led the procession, followed by the Refugee Olympic Team. Antetokounmpo became the first Black Olympic flagbearer for Greece , which he called a "huge honor."

France, as the host nation, was the final country represented in the parade and was immediately preceded by the hosts of the next two Summer Games: Australia (2032) and the United States (2028) . The rest of the countries in between are ordered alphabetically in French.

MORE: Why does Greece go first at Olympics? It's tradition

Lady Gaga, Celine Dion perform at Olympics opening ceremony

It was a guarded secret, even as she walked down the golden staircase covered by pink feathers held by dancers, but Lady Gaga emerged to sing the first notes of the opening ceremony. (In French, of course.)

There were numerous performances throughout the four-and-a-half hour affair, including a dance sequence from France's world-renowned Moulin Rouge and a head-banging performance that combined heavy metal band Gojira with headless Marie Antoinettes, pyrotechnics and traditional opera singers.

They saved the best for last. Celine Dion, who is battling stiff person syndrome , a rare neurological condition that causes muscle spasms and affects her vocal cord, performed a powerful ballad from the Eiffel Tower after the Olympic Cauldron was officially lit.

Dion performed at the opening ceremony nearly 30 years ago at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Minions take over River Seine

The waters of the River Seine have been a point of contention leading up the Paris Games, but viewers got a peek of what's under the water during the opening ceremony: Minions. The camera playfully panned underwater to show a submarine full of Minions, stars of the "Despicable Me" franchise, practicing for various Olympic sports, including gymnastics, weightlifting, archery, volleyball and track and field. They even stole the Mona Lisa.

It didn't go so well for the Minions. An errant javelin sank their submarine.

Peyton Manning's ... wristband?

You can take a quarterback off the football field, but you can't take football out of the quarterback. That was on full display Friday when NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was spotted wearing a wristband during the opening ceremony, one that a quarterback would normally wear during a game for calling plays.

"This is just my wristband," said Manning, who is providing commentary for NBC, alongside Mike Tirico and Kelly Clarkson. "I have notes on all 200 countries, all 10,000 athletes."

Tirico added: "That's just Peyton Manning being Peyton Manning."

Snoop Dogg being Snoop Dogg

The Grammy-nominated rapper is serving as a special correspondent for NBC throughout the  2024 Paris Olympics.  He danced, laughed and captivated viewers with his hilarious commentary, memorable catchphrases and positive attitude during the opening ceremony: "I'm chilling like a villain. Raindrops falling on my head, but we still playing to win baby."

He also provided fashion advice. After Team USA sprinter Noah Lyles shared that he and Snoop Dogg "are going to the same nail tech," the rapper said: "Noah (Lyles) stays spooned and groomed, dipped and whipped, suited and booted. ... I know he was going to be fresh to death. Ya dig? That's my guy."

'Imagine' brings the chills

"Imagine," a song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that promotes world peace, has become the unofficial song of the Olympics. Pianist Sofiane Pamart and singer Juliette Armanet performed the anthem on a floating platform on the Seine, a poignant moment that marked the end of the Parade of Nations and beginning of the Games.

Kelly Clarkson said the chilling rendition was the best performance of the night.

Team USA opening ceremony outfits

Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams, providing 14 different tailored pieces and accessories for the ceremonies, as well as Villagewear for the Games. Ralph Lauren has designed Team USA uniforms dating to the Beijing Summer Games in 2008.

An extra accessory came in handy during the opening ceremony on Friday – a poncho.

Simone Biles sits out opening ceremony

One American missing from the Team USA delegation is Simone Biles. Biles' parents Ronald and Nellie Biles attended the opening ceremony and caught up with "Today" host Hoda Kotb and Snoop Dogg, where they revealed that Biles is not in attendance. Nellie Biles said the gymnast opted out in preparation for team qualifying , which kicks off at 3:30 a.m. ET Sunday, July 28.

"She is feeling really good," Nellie Biles said of four-time Olympic gold medalist. "I spoke to her this morning and she's feeling great."

Although Biles wasn't at the opening ceremony, her family was representing. Nellie Biles said 17 members of the Biles family is in Paris to cheer on Biles.

Will the opening ceremony be replayed?

NBC will have a prime-time replay of Friday's opening ceremony. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Mike Tirico  hosts the broadcast, along with Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. 

"Today" show hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will be stationed on a bridge over the Seine. And reporter Maria Taylor will be embedded with Team USA, interviewing athletes from the river.

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