Annual Banished Word List

[Jerome Foster]

At least we don't hear much about "pinpoint bombing" anymore....
----- Original Message -----
From: "ANNE V. GILBERT" <avgilbert at PRODIGY.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: Annual Banished Word List


> Jim:
> This is an interesting "take" on things.
> >
> > friendly fire - is also called "fratricide".  Friendly fire has been
much
> > discussed since the Gulf War, but is nothing new.  Item:  in the 1948
> battle
> > for Jerusalem, the commanders on both sides (Abdul Kadar el Huseinni and
> > David Marcus) were killed by friendly fire, as was Stonewall Jackson in
> 1863.
> >  It can be argued that at Waterloo more British soldiers were killed by
> > friendly fire than by enemy fire.
>
> I agree with you that "friendly fire" is nothing new.  I remember hearing
> back in the dear old days when the Vietnam War was going on.  I just
assumed
> that the term came from that period.  I'm no doubt mistaken, as I am about
a
> great many things.
> >
> > faith-based - no available synonyms, and if you happen to dislike Bush's
> > ideas on faith-based initiatives, your desire is that they be killed
after
> > public debate, which will be difficult if the term is banished.  Hence
> > banishing the term would be a politically biased activity!
>
> "Faith based" is definitely new, and IMHO overused, but since there's no
> real synonym, we're probably stuck with it, unless people come up with
> something else.
> >
> > synergy - no available synonyms
>
> "Synergy" is a word borrowed, I think, from physics, but it doesn't mean
in
> popular parlance what it means in physics.Basically it's used(again, I
> think)in business situations to describe a kind of ebb and flow between
two
> groups or two ideas.
>
> > sugrical strike - this time I agree that the term should be banished.
> > Knowledgeable people (including many in the US Air Force) know that
"smart
> > bombs" have something like a 50% probability of hitting their targets,
as
> > opposed to the traditional "dumb bombs" whose probability is something
> less
> > than 1%.  Thoughtful admirers of the US air campaign in Afghanistan will
> > admit that a "surgical strike" is a matter of luck, or in other words,
> bombs
> > do not always do what you intend.  (Not a political comment, just a
> statement
> > of reality).
>
> "Surgical strike" is another military term that's been around for a long,
> long time, not just in recent wars, and it's been around long before
"smart
> bombs" were invented, so I doubt that this phrase will get banned any time
> soon.
> Anne G
>
>