Endangered specie (coinages)

[Victor Steinbok]

IIRC, the "congressional investigation" may well have been a
criminal/ethics investigation that put Duke Cunningham behind bars. I
recall Josh Marshall being puzzled over at TPM over Duke's possession of
a pricey commode, but, eventually, realizing his mistake. The word, of
course, exists in other European languages, but AFAIK it does not mean
"toilet" in any of them--seems to be an English euphemism only. I could
be wrong, of course...

     VS-)

On 3/10/2012 2:46 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> ...He was invited to share the story about how, after his friend Bill
> Safire introduced him to DARE, he used it to clear up some confusion
> about the word "commode" in a congressional investigation of
> government expenditures. (It turned out the $1,200 that Stanford
> president Donald Kennedy spend on an "Italian fruitwood commode" was
> for a chest of drawers, not a toilet.)...

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