“Submarine”

With a Supreme Court confirmation hearing on the horizon, keep your periscope up for the dreadful verbing of “submarine.” It rarely makes it into print, appearing in a LexisNexis search only eight times in the last year, down from a high of 27 two years ago.

But this Washington word is due to pop up, as it did when Congressional Quarterly speculated that the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission might “submarine” a stock options rule. The writers meant he would eliminate it. Unfortunately for that usage, even Russian submarines resurface eventually.

The word once implied unseen and sneaky doom. But with Atlantic convoys 50 years behind us, clambering aboard this rusty metaphor today makes for a ship of fools. Jimmy Carter served on a sub, and that’s hardly an image of malevolent competence.

Try “sabotage.” Or at least get it right with “torpedo.” And if a nominee is ever undone by psychedelic drug use, feel free to call that a “yellow submarineing.”

Anyone tempted by nautical nonsense should remember the first part of the submariner’s motto: Run silent. — BRENDAN BUHLER