[Ads-l] idiocracy

[Barretts Mail]

The OED and Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idiocracy <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idiocracy>) have separate entries with separate etymologies, one deriving from idio- and the other from idiot-. BB

> On 31 Aug 2020, at 14:55, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>> my first guess for “idiocracy” is not < “idiot”
> 
> True. But you're not the average reader of the pswaydo-intellectual vitriol
> spewed by a conservative colyumnist, Larry. The writer knows his audience.
> 
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 11:07 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> A drawback: the etymology isn’t clearly directly from “idiot”. “Idio-“ as
>> in “idiopathy”, “idiolect”, “idiosyncratic”, etc. is a combining form for
>> ‘one’s own’ or ‘individual’, and of course *is* the root of “idiot”, but
>> not transparently so.  So my first guess for “idiocracy” is not < “idiot”
>> but maybe rule by those wrapped up in themselves, whether out of narcissism
>> (I know, not entirely irrelevant), autism, or some other reason.
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> On Aug 31, 2020, at 8:50 AM, Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> WOTY candidate?
>>> 
>>> (because of new relevancy?)
>>> 
>>> ---Amy West
>>> 
>>> On 7/2/20 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
>>>> Date:    Wed, 1 Jul 2020 11:20:55 -0400
>>>> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject: idiocracy
>>>> 
>>>> Mike Judge's crude but prophetic film satire appeared in 2006, but this
>> may
>>>> be the first time I've seen it used as a common noun. (Surely not!):
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/max-boot-blame-coronavirus-column-103956270.html
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> " 'We are living — and now dying — in an idiocracy of our own creation,'
>>>> conservative columnist Max Boot concluded his latest column for The
>>>> Washington Post.
>>>> 
>>>> JL
>>> 


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