Bin Laden and PC

[Jonathan Lighter]

>From Barrett's footnote in _Geronimo's Story of his Life_, by Geronimo and
S. M. Barrett, "Superintendent of Education, Lawton, Okla." (1906; rpt N.Y.:
Duffield, 1915), p. 54:

"From the moment the command for war is given with the Apaches everything
assumes a religious guise. The manner of camping, cooking, etc., are exactly
prescribed. Every object appertaining to war is called by its sacred name;
as if, for instance, in English, one should say not horse, but war-horse or
charger; not arrow, but missile of death. The Indian is not called by his
ordinary name, but by a sacred name to which is subjoined "brave" or "chief"
as the case may be. Geronimo's Indian name was Go khla yeh, but the Mexicans
at this battle called him Geronimo, a name he has borne ever since both
among the Indians and white men."

The battle in question was fought between the Apaches and the Mexican army
near Arispe in 1859.  The non-PC Mexican government had placed a bounty of
between twenty-five and a hundred dollars on Apache scalps.

Conceivably - and some later writers inevitably state it as fact - Go khla
yeh heard a Mexican soldier shouting the name of St. Jerome, "Hieronymo," as
an oath in his direction and accepted it as his sacred (not secret)
name.  Geronimo certainly seems to have told Barrett that he got the name
from the Mexicans at that time.

And that's the best I can do, I think.

JL

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 1:59 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Bin Laden and PC
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But back to my question (from early in this thread):  How did the Indian
> get the name Geronimo?  Maybe it was a code name assigned to him by the
> Yankee cavalry--and he happened to like it, so he kept it when he avoided
> being KIA'd.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 1:48 PM
>
>
> Well, there would have to be an interpreter present.
>
> Two interpreters, actually. SEAL doctrine.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 1:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > P.S.:  Last time I heard (which may have been in WWII, vicariously)
> secret
> > code names were assigned randomly from a big book of usable code names.
>  The
> > idea is/was that the referent's relationship to the name should not be
> > conducive to interpretation.
> >
> > If the administration wants to pay me in the mid to upper six-figure
> range
> > to eliminate potentially non-PC code words from the big book of possible
> > secret names, I'm ready.
> >
> > JL
> >   On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 1:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> > > wrote:
> >
> >> I think saying "Bang! You're dead!" would have been sufficient, because
> >> language is loaded weapon.
> >>
> >> Peace.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>   On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 1:27 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: Bin Laden and PC
> >>>
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> At 1:16 PM -0400 5/4/11, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> >OTOH, I have a problem with the use of "KIA," in a case like this. KIA
> >>> >implies that, like a red-blooded American defender of our freedom,
> >>> >Usama had died in combat. I haven't read the news particularly
> >>> >closely, but my impression is that Usama was basically a sitting duck,
> >>> >not engaged in any kind of pro-, or even re-, active defense of
> >>> >himself and al-Qaida.
> >>> >
> >>> Well, after all, bin Laden was killed in the course of the Navy
> >>> Seals' action even if not his own.  After all, KIA doesn't specify
> >>> whose action the killee was killed in.  Underspecification strikes
> >>> again!
> >>>
> >>> LH
>
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