[Ads-l] idiocracy
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Sep 1 17:41:45 UTC 2020
> On Sep 1, 2020, at 12:42 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> 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
“formal” vs. “humorous”—so an appropriate emoji or emoticon would disambiguate
>
>> 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
>>>>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list