Coinages (part two)

[Bruce Dykes]

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Monday, January 24, 2000 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: Coinages (part two)


>> 08-05-1987, BATON ROUGE MORNING ADVOCATE, pg. 12B--Rear Admiral
Poindexter
>> mutilated the Constitution by substituting "deniability" for the
>> "accountability" (...).  The newly coined word "deniability" has not yet
>> found its place in standard English dictionaries; it simply means
creating a
>> loophole for the president (for that matter for any person with
>> responsibility) to lie without being accused of lying.
>
>Safire's New Political Dictionary quotes Elizabeth Drew's usage of
>"deniability" in 1978.
>
>I find it used as a philosophical term in 1905 and in the bureaucratic
>usage in 1974:
>
>1905 _Mind_ (n.s.) 14: 44  The pragmatist would still be able to agree
>with other people in _denying the deniability_ of the abstract axiom.
>
>1974 _Amer. Sociological Rev._ 39: 104  Similarly, a decision to bomb
>North Vietnam is conducted with what-will-be-made-of-it and
>what-it-really-was-all-along (e.g. its deniability) as two of its
>constituent features.


Does "plausible deniability" have any currency outside of technothrillers
and late night HBO fare?

bkd