curious usage note

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:41 PM -0400 3/30/11, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>Isn't the "-ite" suffix normally restricted to tribes (Hittite) and
>followers of people (Trotskyite)?
>
>Jihad is neither.
>
>DanG

Nor is "sodomite", nor "Labo(u)rite".

Then there's the pejorative -er we've discussed (flat-earther,
birther, truther, et al.)--so maybe Jihader.  Naaah.

LH

>
>On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 12:33 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: 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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