ADS-L Digest - 23 Mar 2006 to 24 Mar 2006 (#2006-84)

[Dave Wilton]

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Landau, James
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 5:44 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 23 Mar 2006 to 24 Mar 2006 (#2006-84)

>- UFO's demonstrably exist.  That is, many people have seen sights in
>the sky which certainly _appear_ to be airborne physical objects, which
>in many cases move ("fly"), and which they cannot identify.  The
>question then becomes: are UFO's always natural meteorological
>phenemona, man-made objects such as weather balloons, optical illusions
>etc., or are some of them alien visitations?  (One night I saw a rather
>spectacular UFO.  I described to a friend who was a flying saucer nut,
>and he was able to identify it as an airplane with special lighting
>systems used by a local company for advertising.)

Except that many use the term "UFO" to mean an extraterrestrial space
vehicle. This is a case where the literal meaning does not correspond to
popular usage.

>- a favorite example of mine is the word "troika", not the carriage but
>the usage introduced by Nikita Krushchev meaning "triumvirate".  When he
>proposed setting up a troika to run the UN, he introduced a word into
>English (and effectively removed the word "triumvirate").  Yet there did
>not exist such a troika then, and none has ever come into existence
>since.  Would you include "troika" in your list?

This is a metaphor, not an imaginary thing. And "troika" is indeed still in
widespread use to mean a triumvirate. The OED has several citations before
Khrushchev's 1960 UN speech. The most famous later example that I can think
of is the "troika" of Baker, Meese, and Deaver that ran the White House
during Reagan's first term.

And there is a slight difference in meaning between "triumvirate" and
"troika." A triumvirate always consists of the top guys, answerable to no
one but each other. A "troika" can be lower-level officials, still very
powerful but also accountable to someone else. The metaphor of the three
work horses is still at play, the troika are the ones that supply the power
and get things done, but they're not in the driver's seat.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

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