genocidist
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Sep 17 23:59:05 UTC 2014
On Sep 17, 2014, at 7:30 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Not in OED. Thousands of hits.
>
> Testifying before the House, John Kerry today described members of ISIL as
> "genocidists."
>
> GB has a 1949 that looks real, as it mentions "President Truman": "His
> client,
> I'd say, was the man who helped the painter from Germany become a
> genocidist."
>
Curiously, "genocide" in this sense seems a bit odd, curiously:
Electra was a matricide.
Oedipus was a patricide (or, if you prefer, a parricide).
Cain was a fratricide.
Plath was a suicide.
#Hitler was a genocide.
and it's not in the OED with this sense. (Of course, as Jon points out, neither is genocidist.)
LH
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