[Ads-l] idiocracy

[Laurence Horn]

> 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
>>>> 
> 
> 
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