assassination

[Jonathan Lighter]

McCawley is right, but prominence seems to me to be a necessary condition.

Calculation (or presumed calculation) on the part of the (alleged) killer,
also seems necessary, along with some political motivation.

The Kennedy-Connolly ex. presents an unusual case, and unusual cases can
throw semantics into a tizzy.

If the assassin had a political motive my guess is that it would still be
called "the Kennedy assassination" because Kennedy was extremely prominent,
and the killing would have been the result of some sort of calculation, even
if the gunman missed his intended target.

JL


On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 11:44 AM, 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: assassination
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11:22 AM -0400 3/23/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Many years ago I read or heard that "assassination" was a prejudicial,
> >elitist ideological term because it implied that prominent people deserve
> a
> >special word when they're murdered.
> >
> >Every time you use it you're promoting hierarchy and oppression.
>
> Plus its use oppresses all peaceful hashish users everywhere.
>
> LH
>
> P.S.  Jim McCawley once argued that "assassinate/ation" can't really
> be defined in terms of the prominence of the victim.  Intention must
> be taken into account.  If X is aiming at her unfaithful husband, or
> if Y is trying to take down his overbearing mother-in-law, and either
> of them happens to hit the mayor who was just passing by, this
> doesn't count as assassination.
>
> Intuitions may differ, though--if Oswald had been trying to
> assassinate John Connolly in that car passing through Dealey Plaza,
> wouldn't we still say he assassinated JFK?  Could we say he
> accidentally assassinated Kennedy?
>
> Then, speaking of mayors, there's the Mayor Anton Cermak
> "assassination".  From the wiki-entry,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Cermak:
>
> ========
> While shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt at
> Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida, on February 15, 1933, Cermak [the
> mayor of Chicago--LH] was shot in the lung and seriously wounded when
> Giuseppe Zangara, who at the time was believed to have been engaged
> in an attempt to assassinate Roosevelt, hit Cermak instead.
> ========
>
> Cermak died a couple of weeks later, but had he been assassinated?
> Apparently, Zangara's intentions are still under debate, but most
> descriptions count this as an assassination.
>
>
>
> >
> >
> >On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>  -----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >>  Subject:      assassination
> >>
> >>
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  Yesterday an escaping carjacker shot and killed an Athens GA policeman.
> >>   Both the police chief and several TV commentators has been referring
> to the
> >>  murder as an "assassination."
> >>
> >>  That use of the term sounds odd to me.  Some dictionaries, in entries
> for
> >>  the noun and its corresponding verb, specify the killing of a
> "prominent
> >>  person" or "public figure"; others say "especially" for that
> limitation.
> >>
> >>  The OED does not (nor does it give any examples of the noun or verb
> from
> >>  later than the mid-19th century, except in figurative senses, as in
> >>  "character assassination").  Should it?  I assume the specialization of
> the
> >>  terms (if such exists) is a somewhat receent development (19th or 20th
> >>  century).
> >>
> >>  --Charlie
> >>
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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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