subversive, adj.

[Jonathan Lighter]

An "early" example: "critical of convention or complacency."

1963 Albert J. Guerard _Hardy_ (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice -Hall) 1: A
subsversive writer without intending to be one, he was honored at the end by
the Establishment, with burial in Westminster Abbey and the Prime  Minister
as a pallbearer.

Thomas Hardy, "subversive."  "Without intending" it.  See what I mean?

JL

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 7:53 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> OED defines this solely as "Having a tendency to subvert or overthrow;
> tending to subversion."
>
> But anyone who's had the misfortune to read much postmodern critical theory
> over the past, say, ten or fifteen years, knows that _subversive_  is a
> favorite word of praise in the much diluted sense of "transgressive" (also a
> fave) or "defiantly unconventional."
>
> A random ex. from Google Books, 2005: "The Los Angeles Times's Kenneth
> Turan recognized the arrival of a major, if subversive, talent within the
> heart of the studio system."
>
> JL
>
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>



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

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