embetterment?? Idiot??

[yvonne frasure]

I missed some of the posts and George W.'s use of this word. However, looking at the last two or three posts concerning this word, I get the impression this is more about political B-S. than it is about language misuse.  Although embetterment is not in the dictionary (not in mine anyway), one could assume by definition of other words such as embellishing, embarkation, embattle, etc....that embetterment could be an acceptable term.  "the act of making something better" or "making a situation or individual better"
The term idiot is perhaps being used inappropriately here as well.  Idiot- a person exhibiting mental deficiency in its most severe form and requiring constant care.  The idiot is incapable of learning and understanding, and is completely helpless.  An imbecile may learn to communicate with others, but is incapable of earning his own living.  A mornon may take a normal place in society, but needs constant supervision.  Technically speaking...he's a moron , not an idiot.

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:I didn't mean these questions to be merely rhetorical, no--I agree with
Peter. Consider:

"Apparently, as soon as the power is restored, our telephone and computer
connections will
also be restored.I will continue to work on this situation. Hopefully, we may
be able
to have some connectivity by tomorrow."

--Memo received today from the Director, First-Year Writing Program, Duke
University.

I only have one dictionary with me on vacation, and it has an entry for
CONNECTIVITY in this sense, so I guess it has been around for a while--but
perhaps not very long, I'd guess. Was the person who coined this term any
less of a mangler than Bush was with his "embetterment"?

(Of course, I kinda like EMBETTERMENT--it seems to fill a semantic hole.)
In a message dated 1/2/03 5:36:19 PM, pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU writes:


> I assume that Ron's questions are intended to be rhetorical, but I think
> they would have merit as serious questions bearing on which coinages gain
> wide acceptance and which ones don't.
>
> Peter Mc.
>
> --On Thursday, January 2, 2003 1:32 PM -0500 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> > This is so funny! How do we know that a new word is a "manglement" and
> > not a  clever new usage? Is anything that George Bush says a mangling
> > just because  many people think he is an idiot?
>


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now