AWADmail Issue 270
July 15, 2007
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: AWADmail on hiatus
This will be the last issue of AWADmail until September, as I will
be traveling. A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), however, will continue as usual.
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From: Denise (eguana13 wanadoo.fr)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--detente
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/detente.html
The French have always been slightly bemused at this word choice to refer
to an easing of tension between rivals.
Détente is also the French word for "trigger".
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From: Martin Cobern (mecobern cox.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--detente
The word détente has several definitions in French. One is the lowering
of gas pressure resulting from its expansion (relaxation) according to
Boyle's Law. The word détente also refers to the device in a musket that
releases the firing mechanism. As I recall, several commentators noted
this dichotomy during the Nixon Presidency when discussing Kissinger's
détente strategy.
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From: Andrew Pressburger (andrew.pressburger primus.ca)
Subject: Detente
The French cognate entente (understanding) raises the detente to an even
higher level, since it refers to an actual (albeit informal) alliance
between two parties. The Entente cordiale, signed between Great Britain
and France in 1904 helped remove the tension, caused by colonial rivalry,
between the two countries as they perceived the common danger threatening
them from resurgent Germany.
Later, in the first World War, the alliance joined in the meantime by Russia,
came to be known as the Triple Entente. In those days of grandiloquence,
likewise an attribute of diplomacy, members of such groups referred to each
other as the High Contracting Parties.
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From: Raymond Mendez (rm britcap.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--plenipotentiary
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/plenipotentiary.html
My father was an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. We used
to call him Ambassador Plenty Potent, which made him smile slyly and our
mother giggle.
He enjoyed his U.N. post if only because he never had to remember the
names of his ambassadorial colleagues. When moniker memory failed, a
simple "Your Excellency" sufficed.
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From: Dan Jaffe (comconsult comcast.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--extraterritoriality
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/extraterritoriality.html
I'm sure I'm not the only person who is immediately reminded of Stephen
Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures" by this word. Here are the Russian
ambassador's lines on the subject -- in poor English, but perfect rhyme --
in the song "Please Hello""
Coming next
Is extraterritoriality.
Noting text
Say "extraterritoriality".
You perplexed
By "extraterritoriality"?
(points)
Just noting clause
(Don't touch the coat!)
Which say your laws
Do not apply
(Don't touch the coat!)
When we drop by --
Not getting shot,
No matter what:
A minor scrape,
A major rape,
And we escape
(Don't touch the cape!)
That's what is extraterritoriality.
And the British ambassador, in his best Gilbert and Sullivan-style patter,
says:
The British feel these latest dealings verge on immorality.
The element of precedent imperils our neutrality.
We're rather vexed, your giving extraterritoriality.
We must insist you offer this to every nationality!
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From: Peter O'Malley (peter.omalley usdoj.gov)
Subject: extraterritoriality
Your definition gives the diplomatic sense of the word, but the quotation
refers more to the connotation embraced by the legal doctrine known as the
presumption against extraterritoriality, which, in U.S. law, essentially
means that, absence evidence to the contrary, laws (of the federal government
or of the states) that apply within the jurisdiction of the USA should not
be presumed to operate outside its borders.
Hence, the American tourist arrested in France, for example, would not be
able to insist on the "right to remain silent", as the Miranda decision's
reading of the Fourth Amendment does not apply elsewhere (nor, of course,
does the amendment itself). There have been some unflattering (to us)
applications of this principle in the news recently!
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From: Idan Bearman (idannahag yahoo.com)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--extraterritoriality
Obviously not a Hebrew or Arabic word, it is, nevertheless, pretty common
in daily conversations in Israel. It is used to imply that someone is, or
see themselves, as above the law. Commonly used in reference to V.P. Cheney,
American corporations, certain football (soccer) stars, and the national
phone company.
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From: Michael Har-Even (mhareven nds.com)
Subject: diplomat
You mean it has nothing to do with being two-faced?
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From: Fred Buggie (bigbuggie aol.com)
Subject: feedback: diplomat
My Father used to tell me:
"When a diplomat says 'yes' he means 'maybe'; when he says 'maybe' he means
'no'; if he says 'no' he's no diplomat!
"When a lady says 'no' she means 'maybe'; when she says 'maybe' she means
'yes'; if she says 'yes' ..."
............................................................................
The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the
whim of the editor, compressible ad lib. -Robert Burchfield, lexicographer
(1923-2004)
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