Youneverknow III

Baker, John JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM
Mon Jul 9 16:14:31 UTC 2012


Only in that nobody ever says there's no Department of State.

Although, as Jon notes, Wikipedia says that it was previously the Department for War, this is incorrect.  However, the Department of State was originally, and briefly, known as the Department of Foreign Affairs.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2012 11:47 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Youneverknow III

On Jul 9, 2012, at 11:14 AM, Baker, John wrote:

> Specifically, there never was a War Department as such, although it was often called that.

Is this any different from the non-existence of the State Department (which I assume is likewise officially the Department of State)?

LH

> The Department of War was established on August 7, 1789, in the seventh statute passed by Congress.  It retained that title until passage of the National Security Act of 1947, which transmogrified it into the Department of the Army, which in 1949 was made part of the Department of Defense.
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Benjamin Barrett
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 7:22 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Youneverknow III
>
> According to Wikipedia, they continued believing that until 1947,
> though it was also called the War Department:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Department_of_War
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> On Jul 8, 2012, at 3:24 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>
>>
>> There never was a Department of War?
>>
>> In 1832 they thought there was:
>>
>> http://www.jstor.org/stable/60205341
>>
>> DanG
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 2:53 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Wilson wrote: <<<Department of War > Department of Defense  >
>>> Department of Good?>>>
>>> WB: I once heard Hal Gleason rant that there never was a Department
>>> of War or a Defense Department: it was a War Department and is a
>>> Department of Defense.
>>> War Office > War Department > Department of Defense > *Homeland "R" Us?
>>>
>
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>
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