sponsor

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Violence" can't "sponsor" anything, including "wars," in any ordinary sense
of "sponsor."

OED offers 3 defs.:

"1. a. To be surety for, to favour or support strongly.

b. To promote and support (a resolution, bill, etc.), esp. in a legislative
assembly.

"2. To pay, or contribute towards, the expenses of a radio or television
programme, a performance or other event or work, *spec.* in return for
advertising space or rights."

None of these fit the present context.  "Intangibly" helps distinguish the
writer's "sponsor" from what appears to be its inspiration, def. 2 above,
which involves something quite tangible, i.e. money.

Abstract ideas like "violence" can't "sponsor" anything or expect to derive
any advantage from their "action."

If "state-sponsored terrorism" is taken to mean the contribution of funds,
materiel, etc., for an expected gain in local prestige, strategic advantage,
etc., that's def. 2.   If all it means is the offering of guidance or
approval (a possibility which has not occurred to me till now), that's def.
1a in its attenuated nuance (OED offers only two cites, both from the
1880s).

Either way, the idea of something like "violence" "sponsoring" anything is
quite unknown to the 1989 OED as well as to MW and to me.

"Well," I hear someone snort, "the writer is merely speaking figuratively.
So what?"

Figuratively or not, this is an unrecorded sense of "sponsor."

JL

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 5:06 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: sponsor
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Why "intangibly"? Don't we have "state sponsors of terrorism"? Why not
> broaden to "sponsors of war"?
>
> VS-)
>
> On 7/22/10, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      sponsor
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > App. it means "contribute intangibly to, as by providing impetus,
> > justification, etc. ":
> >
> > 2010 Mary A. Favret _War at a Distance_ (Princeton: P.U.P.) 232: ...the
> > attacks of Sepetember 11, 2001. Striving to find an adequate response to
> > that violence and the wars it sponsored, Butler arrives at the thought
> that
> > her response must initiate [etc.]....
> >
> > The author is Associate Professor of English at Indiana University.
> >
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> >
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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