I'm not sure why I had the urge to forward this A Word A Day to the
list but I did. It's a great word.
Frank
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Wordsmith" <wsm...@wordsmith.org>
Date: June 10, 2009 12:14:16 AM EDT
To: fcarr...@pobox.com
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rachmanism
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rachmanism
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
rachmanism
PRONUNCIATION:
(RAK-muh-niz-uhm)
MEANING:
noun: The exploitation and intimidation of tenants by landlords.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Peter Rachman (1919-1962), a landlord in London who became
notorious for unethical practices including driving out tenants to
maximize revenue from his rental properties. Another fellow who got
his name in the dictionary for harassing tenants is Charles Boycott
(1832-1897), a British land agent in Ireland, whose mistreatment of
tenants resulted in his getting ostracized, i.e. he was boycotted.
USAGE:
"It is a story of pure Rachmanism. She had been threatened, had her
rent cheque refused, her electricity cut off, and seen her absent
neighbours' flats cleared of all their possessions, while rubbish
was dumped outside her door."
Peter Beaumont; Drowned City Cuts Its Poor Adrift; The Observer
(London, UK); Dec 11, 2005.
NOTES:
The term Rachmanism is a Britishism, though unscrupulous landlords
are found everywhere. The above usage example is from the UK, but
even if not mentioned, it'd be easy to tell: in just one sentence it
manages to include four examples that illustrate the spelling and
vocabulary differences between British English and American English:
cheque/check, neighbour/neighbor, flat/apartment, and rubbish/trash.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others.
That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I
feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart.
And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it.
It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to
cause harm. -Alice Walker, author (b. 1944)
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