Pet linguistic hates

[robinturner]

Everyone has words of phrases they hate. I've been meaning to write an exhaustive list of my pet linguistic hates for some time, but the problem is that there are too many of them. So here are a few to be getting on with.

Safe haven

A haven is a harbour. Obviously harbours are supposed to be safe; consider the absurdity of the phrase "dangerous haven". Of course in practice, safe havens are not always safe; for example, during the Bosnian war, a UN "safe haven" was about the most dangerous place to be, showing that when the phrase was not redundant, it was untrue. Having been brought into disrepute by the UN, "safe haven" resurfaced in the context of Iraq and other evil countries; Saddam, for example, was accused of providing a safe haven for terrorists. Given the Bosnian interpretation, this ought to have meant that he encouraged fleeing terrorists to take refuge in Iraq, then handed them over to be slaughtered by the Americans.

People of ...

I don't know where people of confused syntax get the idea that the phrase "people of some abstract noun" is less condescending to whichever group you are referring to, so that "person of color" is somehow a nicer thing to say than "colored person". "Colored" was always a euphemism; changing it from an adjective to a noun doesn't change anything. However, I can accept that that particular phrase has entered our language, and that terms for racial groups are in any case transitory owing to the politics of etic and emic definition and whatnot ... but there is no way I am going to accept "people of poverty", which I saw on an otherwise admirable website. I suspect it is an attempt at recreating (in a suitably degendered way) the elan of phrases like "man of means", "man of substance" and so on, but I'm sorry, you can't put a positive, upbeat spin on poverty. These are not "people of poverty", they are just poor. And if you don't like the word "poor" because it has negative connotations, that's tough, because being poor is not a good thing. Ask any person of poverty.

P(a)edophile

One of the problems with euphemisms or attempts to "reclaim" words is that people aren't fooled for long. In the case of "paedophilia", they weren't fooled for an instant. There was already a perfectly serviceable word for someone who has sex with children: "pederast". Unfortunately, rather than sticking with "pederast", the public adopted "paedophile" (with or without the A) but with the meaning of "pederast" (a paedophile is strictly speaking someone who likes children; the term does not necessary mean having sex with children any more than an bibliophile has sex with books). Worse still, the semantic field of paedophile is now being expanded to mean anyone who is attracted to someone noticably younger than them, hence a reviewer's description of the casting of Keira Knightley as Guinevere as being for the benefit of teenage boys and "middle-aged paedophiles". Now beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but age is not; if she counts as a child for her middle-aged admirers, then she does for her teenage fans as well (Knightley is nineteen, by the way). If there is really a need for a word other than "heterosexual" to describe middle-aged men who find young women attractive, someone should invent one, rather than stretching an existing word wider than a catamite's behind.

Comments

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

Wait...bibliophiles DON'T have sex with books?

Now I understand why the librarian is always giving me quizzical looks. And donning latex gloves before checking in my returns.

[ironed_orchid]

If there is really a need for a word other than "heterosexual" to describe middle-aged men who find young women attractive, someone should invent one

I usually just stick to "lecher".

[solri.livejournal.com]

In that case, is there any difference between the set of lechers and the intersection of the sets of males and heterosexuals?

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

You're the first person I've heard outside of an ethnic studies professor from way back when to use the terms "emic" and "etic." In fact, said professor claimed that he was the one who invented the terminology. Now I kinda don't believe him.

Just had to mention it, 'cos seeing those words written out kinda shocked me.

[solri.livejournal.com]

The problem is that I can never remember which is which. I vaguely remember them from sociolinguistics, though they were borrowed, IIRC, from anthropology.

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, I thought that pederast referred to a man who had anal sex with a boy, while pedophile could refer to any gender combo and any sexual act, so long as one was a child and the other was an adult.

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

I can't remember either! But it's been seven years since I took that class, I think.

[solri.livejournal.com]

A prototypical pederast is a man who has anal sex with a boy, because throughout the ages that is something that men like to do (I'm still not sure why). However, I think the "expert category" definition could be extended to encompass other adult-child sexual acts. I'm not sure if these are less acknowledged because they are uncommon, or because they don't fit into a taboo exaggeration of a a sexual pattern that was common in the classical era.

This is where I need darkened lights and a computer presentation (that's "Powerpoint" to you Windows-using proles).

[Solri's voice, but slightly more echoey, older and authoritative, and much more camp]

Let us cast our minds back to the Athens of Plato - no, wait! [dramatic hand movements] - to the Greece of the Persian wars. We see a warrior culture, but a culture of warriors who are cultivated and sensitive, who not only fight but appreciate sculpture, poetry, tragedy and the aesthetic of olive oil scraped from a firm limb by the sharp but delicate strigil after a hard bout of wrestling in which well-muscled young men would lock in playful but serious combat. How natural and fitting it would have seen to them for the older erast to initiate his young friend into mysteries which go beyond the Eleusinian.

Ponsonby-Smythe, you look puzzled! Don't worry about it, young man, just pop into my office some time for a tutorial."

emic & etic

[trochee.livejournal.com]

"emic" is the insider's view, "etic" the outsider's.
(derived from "phonemic", "phonetic").
The Wikipedia entry.

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

Were you by any chance drunk when you wrote that last bit?

[solri.livejournal.com]

I can't remember. But I can be silly when I'm sober, too.

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

In any case, it gave me a pleasant little chuckle. So, thanks!