"trouble" = to complicate; problematize.

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/26/2009 10:03 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 9:43 AM -0400 10/26/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>Jon, did you come to praise this locution, or to bury it?  What came
>>to my mind was "troubled waters", roiled.  And the OED has "trouble,
>>v" sense 3:  "To put into a state of (mental) agitation or disquiet;
>>to disturb, distress, grieve, perplex."  That seems quite plausible
>>for your quotation.
>
>I don't see how it does.  That quite standard sense requires an
>object that's the experiencer of the trouble, hence a sentient being.
>The "problematize" sense doesn't.  It's not the politics of
>historical interpretation that is troubled/distressed/plagued here,
>but those who are trying to figure it out.

I see "the politics and ethics of historical interpretation" as being
roiled,agitated, stirred up. in the same way that troubled waters are
roiled.  The subject (the politics) stands for the people who interpret.


>LH
>
>>Sense 5[a] is less to the point, but adds
>>color:  "To distress with something disagreeable and unwelcome; to
>>vex, annoy; to tease, plague, worry, pester, bother."
>>
>>Joel
>>
>>At 10/26/2009 12:15 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>Google Books' blurb - apparently from a review - of Robert N. Proctor's _The
>>>Nazi War on Cancer_ (Princeton U.P., 2000):
>>>
>>>"His treatment of smoking and cancer will be a revelation. This book
>>>troubles the politics and ethics of historical interpretation in the very
>>>best ways."
>>>
>>>(Literally about Nazis vs. Cancer.  They didn't want Aryans to get it.)
>>>
>>>JL
>>>
>>>--
>>>"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
>>>Platypus"
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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