Pondering a new word, ‘salvatage’
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, I was a patient at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for a procedure, which required a “port” to be established in my arm for whatever it is that needs to be introduced into one’s body for that procedure. Nurse Jen chose to use a forearm vein to site the port, but the vein was proving elusive. After a brief skirmish with the diving, darting vein, she asked her partner nurse, “Is this salvageable or have I sabotaged the whole thing?” Or at least that is what she meant to say. What she actually said — or something like this — “Is this situation ‘salvataged?'”
Ever alert to unfamiliar words, I pounced. “Slavatage.” What a wonderful and useful word! It means to successfully negotiate the terrain between saving a situation or making it worse. Which precisely describes, among other things, the dilemma facing the Democrats if they regain control of Congress following the midterm elections: To save American democracy from chaos, while avoiding the potential to install their own brand of chaos. In fact, if the Republicans prevail in the election, they might find it in their best interest to “salvatage” American democracy, too.