violence = 'personal or social domination of any kind'

[Joel S. Berson]

A resurrection?  Of:

"{dag}6. Violation of some condition. Obs.{em}1
a1754 FIELDING Remedy Afflict. Wks. 1775 IX. 251 Nor is there any
dissuasive from such contemplation [of the loss of friends]: it is no
breach of friendship, nor violence of paternal fondness."  [The OED's
only quote.]

I can imagine the notion is that the usurer has violated some term of
the social contract under which money is lent, or the master of some
element of proper treatment of a servant.

But I share Jon's (surmised) distaste.

Joel

At 11/13/2010 11:19 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Not in OED but common among postmodern sociologists:
>
>1990 Pierre Bourdieu _The Logic of Practice_  (R. Nice, trans.) [Stanford:
>Stanford U. P.] 127: [O]vert violence, that of the usurer or the ruthless
>master, is collectively disapproved of and is liable to provoke either a
>violent riposte or the flight of the victim.
>
>The French text was written in 1980.
>JL
>
>--
>"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

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