assassination

[George Thompson]

I should think that "assassination" et al. could be applied to the killing of a not-prominent person who stands as a representative of government.  There was a case a several years ago, in which an anti-government nut called in a false emergency and shot from ambush the cops who responded.
The instance Charlie cites, an escaping carjacker shooting and killing a policeman, I would not consider an assassination -- the cop was not shot in his role as symbol.
Would the bombs sent by Ted Kaczynski be called assassinations attempts?  He was in some way politically motivated and saw the recipients as deserving of being killed.  Or what of sending anthrax spores to a government office?

There have been several instances in recent years of doctors who perform abortions being murdered.  These, too, I would call assassinations.  One was shot through his living room window by a sniper, another was shot on the steps of a church at close range.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:15 am
Subject: assassination
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> Yesterday an escaping carjacker shot and killed an Athens GA
> policeman.  Both the police chief and several TV commentators has been
> referring to the murder as an "assassination."
>
> That use of the term sounds odd to me.  Some dictionaries, in entries
> for the noun and its corresponding verb, specify the killing of a
> "prominent person" or "public figure"; others say "especially" for
> that limitation.
>
> The OED does not (nor does it give any examples of the noun or verb
> from later than the mid-19th century, except in figurative senses, as
> in "character assassination").  Should it?  I assume the
> specialization of the terms (if such exists) is a somewhat receent
> development (19th or 20th century).
>
> --Charlie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org