assassination

[Dan Goncharoff]

What about the distinction between assassination and execution?

For example, we talk of "gangland executions", not "gangland
assassinations".

Does the mechanism of murder matter? If a bomb or an anthrax filled letter
is sent to a named addressee, is that less "assassinative" than a sniper
rifle, even though the target is specified?

DanG

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 12:51 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: assassination
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I should think that "assassination" et al. could be applied to the killing
> of a not-prominent person who stands as a representative of government.
>  There was a case a several years ago, in which an anti-government nut
> called in a false emergency and shot from ambush the cops who responded.
> The instance Charlie cites, an escaping carjacker shooting and killing a
> policeman, I would not consider an assassination -- the cop was not shot in
> his role as symbol.
> Would the bombs sent by Ted Kaczynski be called assassinations attempts?
>  He was in some way politically motivated and saw the recipients as
> deserving of being killed.  Or what of sending anthrax spores to a
> government office?
>
> There have been several instances in recent years of doctors who perform
> abortions being murdered.  These, too, I would call assassinations.  One was
> shot through his living room window by a sniper, another was shot on the
> steps of a church at close range.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:15 am
> Subject: assassination
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > 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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