"-free" goes neutral

[Wilson Gray]

"-Free" might have have gone that way a lot earlier, if the Nazi
_Judenrein_, roughly, "cleaned, cleared  of Jews," hadn't been given
the space-saving and peppier translation, "Jew-free," by some random
war-correspondent.

-Wilson

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 12:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "-free" goes neutral
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> We've all bought products that promise to get other products "stain-free,"
> "odor-free," "germ-free," "gunk-free," etc.  "-Free" implies that something
> quite undesirable has been removed.  You are now "free of" that obviously
> undesirable thing.
>
> Thirty or so ago years ago, a freshman turned in a theme about racism. In it
> he used the phrases "Jew-free" and "black-free."  I decided I needed to have
> a little chat with the lad.
>
> As it turned out - and it was pretty clear from his theme - he had not meant
> to imply that being "Jew-" or "black-free" was a good thing. In fact, the
> opposite. However, his sense of language was so limited that he had not
> perceived what (I assume) we do, that "-free" means "good riddance."
>
> Last night CNN (n.b., not Fox) reported that Patrick Kennedy would not seek
> reelection. The panel at the bottom of the screen read "Congress to be
> Kennedy-free."  The anchor explained that his retirement would mean "the
> first Kennedy-free Congress in fifty years."
>
> Now if we may rise above partisan politics for a moment, I submit that CNN
> did not intend to suggest "good riddance" when it spoke of a "Kennedy-free
> Congress" any more than that student (now old enough to be some journalist's
> father) was a neo-Nazi.
> It meant "a Congress without a Kennedy."
>
> Google summons up too many "Kennedy-free" hits to examine, but wherever they
> come from, and whatever they mean, CNN must think the affix is neutrally
> descriptive.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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