[Ads-l] "A big academic word"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 11, 2016, at 7:29 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Prof. Eddie Glaude, Jr., of Princeton, humorously apologized to Joe and
> Mika on MSNBC's _Morning Joe_ for using "a big academic word": _precarity_.
> 
> 
> After bemused confessions of unfamiliarity, they all began using it.
> 
> Nearly a quarter million RGH's.

Or 241 actual g-hits.  Many of them do indeed seem to be academic.

This blog post
http://www.gapatton.net/2014/01/2-precarity.html
tracks it back to Dorothy Day in 1952.  More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarity 

LH

> 
> It means "precariousness" as applied to sociopolitical circumstances.
> 
> Evidently "precariousness" isn't good enough or specific enough - or maybe
> it's too hard to say.
> 
> Not in OED.
> 
> JL
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=c5yJOSgVCU_8t1KrRznQ3nGJ0Fuq3M7RuMU9yXVWa-U&s=bZzQRYfg8Q7qzg9sZ4S5ihvHkrDPSnJ9F7cLL6APkZw&e= 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org