[Ads-l] coward

[Gadi Niram]

On Tue, Dec 17, 2019 at 7:16 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> I first became aware of another sense when the 9/11 hijackers were
> described that very day as "cowards," even though they clearly were not
> afraid of danger.  Since then other terrorists and killers have been
> routinely described as "cowards" - meaning "a vicious person who acts
> treacherously."
>

My first memory of this sense was back in 1995, when Bill Clinton said of
the Oklahoma City bombing
that "[i]t was an act of cowardice and it was evil."  I've thought about
this use of "cowards"/"cowardice"
a bit over the years, and I've come to understand it as meaning "a person
who acts violently, rejecting
the more difficult and honorable path of doing good."

] <http://www.americandialect.org>gadi at maniagrid.com

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