[Ads-l] "Oppressive Language List"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The jig us up.

JL

On Sun, Jun 27, 2021 at 2:44 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Jun 27, 2021, at 12:09 PM, Mailbox <mailbox at GRAMMARPHOBIA.COM> wrote:
> >
> >> On Sat, 26 Jun 2021 06:48:02 -0400,  Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> Subject: Oppressive Language List
> >>
> >> No comment:
> >>
> >>
> https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist.html
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >
> > OK, one comment. Included is “rule of thumb” (
> https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist_violent.html
> <
> https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist_violent.html>)
> which has been vilified as politically incorrect since the mid-1970s, when
> it was said to have originated as a legal term for what was allowed in
> wife-beating.
>
> Well, they do concede this etymythology “allegedly” derives from the
> (faulty) source they repeat, which is debunked in many places.  Surprised
> they don’t include “picnic” and “niggardly", which allegedly have racist
> origins (from different fabricated sources).  If the idea is that any
> expression that some people falsely believe to have such origins should be
> avoided, it’s hard to know which objections to take seriously. Should we
> avoid referring to golf because it allegedly derives from “gentlemen only,
> ladies forbidden”? But if that’s the motivation for entering an item on the
> list (a slur being in the mind of the beholder, not in the intention of the
> speaker), Brandeis should at least acknowledge that the alleged derivation
> is indeed an error and/or fabrication.
>
> LH
>
>
> > This is a persistent myth; “rule of “thumb” had no such origin and there
> never was such a law. My husband and I wrote about this years ago on our
> blog:
> >
> > https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/04/rule-of-thumb.html <
> https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/04/rule-of-thumb.html>
> >
> > It’s too bad that a university would help perpetuate such
> misconceptions.  More, for anyone who’s interested: Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
> “‘Rule of Thumb’ and the Folklaw of the Husband's Stick.” Journal of Legal
> Education, vol. 44, no. 3, 1994, pp. 341–365. JSTOR,
> > www.jstor.org/stable/42893341 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/42893341>
> >
> > Pat O'Conner
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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