passive "kowtowed" for "cowed"

[Paul Frank]

And speaking of kowtowing, here's a trivium: having just looked up the
Chinese word ketou (ç£•é ­), from which we get the English word kowtow, I
see that it's a surprisingly recent coinage. The first citation in the
monumental Hanyu Dacidian (漢語大詞典, Comprehensive Chinese Word
Dictionary) is by the scholar official Hong Mai (1123-1202). But come
to think of it, it's perhaps not all that surprising, because it was
in the Song dynasty that the tradition of open discussion at court,
and the Confucian precept that forthright criticism is the highest
kind of loyalty, began to make way to a more absolutist style of
imperial rule. Scholar officials sat with the emperor and discussed
matters of state during the Tang dynasty (618–907), they stood erect
in front of the seated emperor during the Song (960-1279), and they
prostrated themselves before him and called themselves "your Majesty's
humble slave" during the Ming (1368-1644).

Off-topically,
Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
Espace de l'Europe 16
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 5:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I heard this once a few weeks back and disregarded it as a slip.
>
> Shortsighted of me, of course.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 10:05 AM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This morning on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, I read the following:
>>
>> Scott Morgan smacks the LA Times for being kowtowed by Holder's threat:
>> http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/
>>
>> That's the first time I recall hearing or reading "kowtow" use as a
>> passive. Â  Googling "kowtowed" produced three more examples out of the
>> first hundred hits. Â It looks like "kowtowed" is moving in on "cowed."
>>
>> Mika Brzezinski: Kowtowed Liberal
>>
>> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x35414
>>
>> I very much doubt the French are being kowtowed by terrorists
>>
>> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1245965/French-u-turn-burka-ban-fears-terrorist-reprisals.html
>>
>> you can see plenty of non-Muslims wandering about while they're kowtowed.
>> http://www.chilledtimes.com/archive/index.php?t-20691.html
>>
>> It looks like "kowtowed" is moving in on "cowed."
>>
>> Herb

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