The verbiage of President Biden’s inauguration was self-consciously Lincolnesque. Emphasis on the self-conscious. He used the phrase “uncivil war,” a bit of wordplay that didn’t land as it unintentionally implies its negation: A civil war is good. That said, pretty strong overall. I was relieved to watch it end Donald Trump’s sham challenge to the legitimate election result. And I was also relieved not to hear Biden’s winceworthy “Build Back Better” slogan come up.

In 2019, Biden rolled out the slogan of “no malarkey.” I reviewed it positively, making “malarkey” the Word of the Week and tracing the charmingly out-of-time word back to its slightly uncertain origins. The reason I liked it then was that it was direct. It’s something that you could actually imagine somebody saying out loud outside of the context of a political speech, even if you might have to imagine that the person actually saying it is an eccentric born before World War II who talks a little funny and flies off the handle angry sometimes.