[Ads-l] idiocracy

[Wilson Gray]

> my first guess for “idiocracy” is not < “idiot”

True. But you're not the average reader of the pswaydo-intellectual vitriol
spewed by a conservative colyumnist, Larry. The writer knows his audience.

On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 11:07 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> A drawback: the etymology isn’t clearly directly from “idiot”. “Idio-“ as
> in “idiopathy”, “idiolect”, “idiosyncratic”, etc. is a combining form for
> ‘one’s own’ or ‘individual’, and of course *is* the root of “idiot”, but
> not transparently so.  So my first guess for “idiocracy” is not < “idiot”
> but maybe rule by those wrapped up in themselves, whether out of narcissism
> (I know, not entirely irrelevant), autism, or some other reason.
>
> LH
>
> > On Aug 31, 2020, at 8:50 AM, Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
> >
> > WOTY candidate?
> >
> > (because of new relevancy?)
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
> > On 7/2/20 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> >> Date:    Wed, 1 Jul 2020 11:20:55 -0400
> >> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject: idiocracy
> >>
> >> Mike Judge's crude but prophetic film satire appeared in 2006, but this
> may
> >> be the first time I've seen it used as a common noun. (Surely not!):
> >>
> >>
> >>
> https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/max-boot-blame-coronavirus-column-103956270.html
> >>
> >>
> >> " 'We are living — and now dying — in an idiocracy of our own creation,'
> >> conservative columnist Max Boot concluded his latest column for The
> >> Washington Post.
> >>
> >> JL
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
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