"biobigotry" -- coined by Natalie Angier?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/30/2008 03:11 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> >  In her article in today's NYTimes, Natalie Angier employs
> >  "biobigotry" ("Noble Eagles, Nasty Pigeons, Biased Humans", Science
> >  Times, page 1).  It has made the rounds of 486 Google hits (many if
> >  not all of the first 10 clearly from her article), but not yet into a
> >  Google book.  Is it her coining?
> >
> >  "In sum, I was suffering from a severe case of biobigotry: the
> >  persistent and often irrational desire to be surrounded only by those
> >  species of which one approves, and to exclude any animals, plants and
> >  other life forms that one finds offensive."
>
>So, a variant of speciesism?

I would say sufficiently different.  Speciesism is (from Wikipedia)
related to the rights animals have depending or not depending on
their species (for example, how close they are to humans).  Angier's
biobigotry is a distaste for certain species depending on their
beauty, good habits, etc., or lack thereof.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org