[Lexicog] Equivalents for German "Heimat"

[Fritz Goerling]

Marco,

Wittgenstein said "the meaning of a word is its use." It's up to you
how you want to use the word "patria" in Italian or how the Austrian
wants to use the word "Heimat." I respect that. For me - as I explained with
a number of examples - it is not a loaded term, but very positive.
How ideologues - who come and go - use words is another matter.
Is it better to have a "political correctness" dictionary or to
include PC terms in a general dictionary? !
Every language user has the power to redefine words or
use them creatively. I can avoid a word or reclaim a word
(and rid it of unwanted sense components). I believe in the
power of reinterpretation.

By the way, where are you from in Italy (if you are Italian)?
Would you call the place where you were born and maybe grew up
"terra natia"?

Fritz Goerling



  Thanks for the explanation.

  I was just talking to an Austrian colleague here in Vienna, and we both
  felt that we would use the terms patria (I) and Heimat (him) only
  jokingly, as they seem to correlate in our minds with a constellation of
  unpleasent things (Fascism/Nazism, wars, and the like...)

  M


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