curious usage note

[Dan Goncharoff]

Isn't the "-ite" suffix normally restricted to tribes (Hittite) and
followers of people (Trotskyite)?

Jihad is neither.

DanG

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: curious usage note
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12:25 PM -0400 3/30/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >_New Oxford American Dictionary_ (2005):
> >
> >"Jihadist...There doesn't seem to be a pressing need for this
> >English-friendly form since the Arabic term for a holy warrior, _mujahid_,
> >has already made it into English. in the plural forms (_mujahideen,
> >mujahedin_) along with _jihadi_, a form more in keeping with Arabic
> >morphology."
> >
> >Weird, eh? Like being "English-friendly" could be a drawback, esp.
> >in contrast with a harder-to-spell-and-remember foreign word like "mujahid
> "
> >(my keyboard doesn't want me to include the diacritic over the "a.")
> >
> >But what of this?:
> >
> >"..._Jihadist_, however, is the preferred form for all writers who are
> >vehemently anti-Arab or anti-Islam."
> >
> >Is this true? Do I even detect sarcasm? Doesn't the note imply that the
> use
> >of "jihadist" is an identifying mark of the racist and/or religious bigot?
> >
> >On what basis specifically?
> >
> >JL
>
> Right; I think we (or the bigots among us) ought to stick with
> traditional suffixal usage and go with "Jihadite"--or, if female,
> "Jihadette"--rather than adopting the much more neutral-sounding
> "Jihadist".  (Cf. Trotskyite, suffragette, et al.)  Unfortunately,
> "Jihadite" sounds more like an exotic rock or gem, possibly a
> birthstone.
>
> LH
>
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