[Lexicog] Joe the Plumber

[al haraka]

Hayim,

I think you are partly right, at best.  I was an Arabic major in
college, and I heard so many stories about the origin of this word.
First of all, the assassins you are referring to have nothing to do
with Malaysia (Islam did not reach it until much after the Abbasid
period, which is the consensus period in which they came about).  If
these Ismailiyya groups (a radical offshoot of Islam) did reach them,
and *not* the assassins themselves, I would like to know. I have heard
they reached India.  (You know what is left of them as the Aga Khan,
and they are very powerful indeed, just not for killing people of
note). I had never heard the Malaysia comment before.  I checked the
Wikipedia page on them, which dishes out the vanilla, most commonly
believed explanation:

****

The term 'Assassin' derives from the Arabic word Hashshashin (Ar:
حشاشون \ جماعة الحشاشين),[3] a militant Ismaili Persian Muslim sect,
active in the Northern parts of Iran (Alamout) from the eighth to the
fourteenth centuries. This mystic secret society killed members of the
Abbasid and Seljuq élite for political and religious reasons.[4]

It is popularly believed that the assassins were under the influence
of hashish and opium during their killings or during their
indoctrination, and that assassin derives from hasishin, the influence
of the drugs. However, most Islamic scholars now think this unlikely,
and favour the etymology of assassiyun, meaning people who were
faithful to the foundation (assass) of the Muslim faith.[5] Another
possibility is that they were named hassansin, after their leader,
Hassan-i-Sabah. Hashishinnya was a term used by Muslims and Mongolians
to characterize this cult.

The earliest known literary use of the term "assassination" is in The
Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605).

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins

****

The word you use may or may not be the same thing as Hashshashin
(sorry, no one can make a romanized version of Arabic that is robust
enough to express anything, IMHO), but I just want to make sure
because your spelling is ambiguous to me.  The word you put out there
is very close to a word use for a Shi'i place of worship (whether or
not you consider a hassaniya a mosque is a religious dispute, and it
is frankly not my problem). I am sorry to go on this rant, but
misspelled Arabic drives me nuts, and it confuses people (what you
wrote could either be about hashish or Hassan depending on how you
pronounced the thing).

Regards,
_AJS

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Hayim Sheynin <hayim.sheynin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Scott,
>
> Please check your data about the
> assassination (noun -- Shakespeare coinage) ?
> I doubt this, since I know that the ethimology of
> this word is from Arabic hassassiniya.
> There was in Baghdad a sect or secret organization
> under this name which practiced murder and political
> killings. Later this organization developed branches
> in other countries, like Malaysia.
> I presume it came to Shakespeare either from French or
> Dutch.
>
> Hayim Sheynin
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:56 AM, bolstar1 <bolstar1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Ruddy Troike said on "Idioms and Phraseology": "I'm reminded of Alton
>> Becker's rejection of Chomsky's autonomous syntax by arguing that
>> `all of language is recycled combinations, and that this is how we
>> learn language...'"
>> I think that's a great principle in understanding language
>> acquisition and evolution. An interesting modern-day example might
>> be "Joe the Plumber," the current mantra used on the American
>> political beat to refer to the average citizen. Of course this is an
>> offshoot of "Joe sixpack." But Joe the plumber will only enter the
>> lexicon if it holds up over time. Till then it might be considered a
>> current and localized allusion. (Wouldn't it be funny if this lead
>> to "Joe the...(something)" -- to refer to any group, organization, or
>> political persuasion?)
>> Some phrases don't change over time, and simply are too pithy
>> and catchy to give up. e.g. "the be-all and all of...(something) --
>> from Shakespeare's Macbeth:
>>
>> Macbeth 1.07.002(2)-007(1)
>> assassination (noun -- Shakespeare coinage)
>> the be-all and end-all (nphr -- Shakespeare coinage)
>>
>> If th' assassination
>> Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
>> With his surcease, success; that but this blow
>> Might be the be-all and the end-all -- here,
>> But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
>> We'd jump the life to come. (Signet)
>>
>> trammel up* catch in a net (Sig) || entangle as in a net (Riv)
>> the consequence* the events arising from it (Riv)
>> his surcease* Duncan's death (?) the consequence's cessation (?)
>> (Sig) ||
>> its (the assassination's) conclusion (?) or Duncan's death (?)
>> (Riv)
>> success* what follows (Sig)
>> shoal*** shallow (Oni)
>> jump* hazard; risk (Oni) || venture (Nels)
>>
>> Scott Nelson
>>
>>
> 



-- 
Alexander J. Stein
Cell:  (201)-412-9479
Email: alharaka at gmail.com
Skype: alexander.j.stein
AIM:   elduderino6886

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