Shibboleth (and linguistic profiling)

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:21 AM -0500 2/21/02, GSCole wrote:
>Perhaps there is a change in the definition of shibboleth, with the
>meaning including 'password'.  Thomas Sowell, in a recent newspaper
>column [19 FEB 2002, The Patriot News (Harrisburg, PA)], states that
>"Back in biblical times, the word 'shibboleth' was used as a password,
>because people from one side could say it easily and their enemies
>couldn't.  It identified who you were and which side you were on."
>
>A recent post to this list would be in agreement with the concept that
>shibboleth = password.  And, a Google search certainly supports the
>association of shibboleth and password.
>
>My usage has tended to favor that in Merriam Webster's Collegiate, 10th
>ed., in which the word password is not used.  Part of the definition --
>"1.a: a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and
>usu. regarded by others as empty of real meaning . . . (1.b.) a widely
>held belief. . . ."
>
>Perhaps an updated dictionary entry would read:  Shibboleth (see
>password)?
>
I hope not.  It's a lot richer than "password", and I've never heard
anyone refer to opening their computer account or activating their
ATM card via a shibboleth.  (Of course it could be claimed that while
a shibboleth is a password, a password is not necessarily a
shibboleth, but that just shows why the two can't be identified.)
The biblical story (Judges 12: 4-6) of the shibboleth (orig 'grain of
wheat', but transferred to the pronunciation of the word itself) is
actually the first recorded instance of the practice of linguistic
profiling, and a rather severe one at that.

larry