Chimney (and "nation" and "community")

[Mark A. Mandel]

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  >>>

Somewhat analogous to the use of "nation" in its expanded sense (though
without the frequent--and saving--lightheartedness) is the rampant current
use of "community."  I wonder what kinds or degrees of commonality qualify a
number of persons to be called a community?

<<<

The word seems to be undergoing some semantic bleaching, on the way to
becoming a general collective noun.

It's like the bleaching of "fact" to a one-syllable synonym for
"proposition", which fills a gap (good) but at the cost of creating another
(bad) and destroying a very important distinction (very bad). But I don't
see the bleaching of "community" as being anything near so
meaning-destructive.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]

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