You fascist!

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Jan 21 18:48:37 UTC 2012


On Jan 21, 2012, at 10:50 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:

> this appears to me to be a slight shift in the use of the word without any change in meaning, so there is perhaps no reason why even the OED should note it. There is a sort of general rule of pejorative use that causes a pejorative use of a word when both speaker and nearer agree that the category so named is revile-able. You liberal/socialist/communist/Protestant/Catholic/Republican/professor/lexicographer.
>
In polite company, that last one may be downtoned to "You harmless drudge!"

LH

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