from "blood libel" to "pogrom"

[Joel S. Berson]

And what do we say about the Republican candidate in last fall's
elections who said (and I'm paraphrasing), if you don't like the
other side, look to the Second Amendment?  (Read about in an on-line
article or blog by a New York Times reporter earlier this
week.)  Cross-hairs may be metaphoric, but I suspect the NRA doesn't
say that about guns.

Joel

At 1/14/2011 11:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Now, now. There you go again!  Was the "war" on poverty really a war? Of
>course not! When America's young people say the latest musical bebop number
>or something is "killer!" do they mean it really kills?  No again!
>
>So obviously any mean criticism of a political position is just as much a
>"blood libel" or a "pogrom" or "genocide" (good one!) as anything else.
>
>As St. Humpty might have said to Alice: "Prove me wrong, O ye
>prescriptivists!"
>
>JL
>
>On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: from "blood libel" to "pogrom"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 9:51 PM -0500 1/14/11, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > >On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 5:43 PM, Victor Steinbok
> > ><aardvark66 at gmail.com> quoted:
> > >
> > >>  pogrom
> > >
> > >Clearly, this person has not the least idea of what a "pogrom" is - or
> > >should that be, ... of what is a "pogrom"?. Well, that's not very
> > >surprising, given that the one-volume edition of the Bol'shoi
> > >russko-angliiskii slovar' / Comprehensive Russian-English Dictionary
> > >gives the the meaning of _pogrom_ as "pogrom." I.e., there is really
> > >no way of translating the horror contained in those two syllables into
> > >English.
> > >
> > >Of course, from now on, every time that some right-winger has his
> > >feelings hurt, it'll be described as the consequence of a "pogrom."
> > >
> > >It's almost enough to make you appreciate why The One True Faith
> > >labored to keep the Bible out of the hands of the polloi for a
> > >millennium and a half. That is to say, a person really ought to have
> > >some idea of what a "pogrom" is before using the word to describe a
> > >triviality. The writer would, no doubt, use "beheading" to describe a
> > >cutting remark. :-(
> > >
> > If GWB and Obama can variously be seen as the new Hitler (by
> > different seers, to be sure), then this isn't too surprising, given
> > the usual semantic bleaching effects, although it is discouraging.
> > Who was it who used to complain about "defining deviancy down"?  So
> > now it's "blood libel" and "pogrom" being defined down.   :-( indeed.
> >
> > LH
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"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

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