Tag: politics

• “Slur”: an etymology dragged in mud

  At a White House event yesterday honoring Navajo code talkers, President Trump called Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” as he has on many past occasions. Native American leaders, among so many others, are rightly decrying the disparaging remarks as a racial slur, as it drags native peoples into the mud—and literally so, if we look to…

  John Kelly

  November 28, 2017

  Feature

• Taking “taxes” to the etymological task (repost)

  With House Republicans unveiling sweeping tax cuts in a bill this week, I figured it was a good time to repost this piece on the etymology of tax from 2014. Over three years later, I still find it incredible that tax comes from the same Latin root that gives us task, taste, and taxi.

  John Kelly

  November 3, 2017

  Feature, Repost

• “Stunt”: a real “stumper” of an etymology

  After some players took a knee during the national anthem, US Vice President Mike Pence abruptly left a football game between the Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers this Sunday. But many aren’t seeing his move as a un-dignifying departure—but a political stunt, a word whose ultimate origins are, shall we say, a bit stunted.

  John Kelly

  October 10, 2017

  Feature

• “Taking a knee”: Simple phrase, powerful—and changing—meaning

  Used in military and football slang, the phrase take a knee dates back to at least 1960.  This past weekend, millions of viewers witnessed American football players, among other athletes and celebrities, “take a knee” during the playing of the US national anthem ahead of kickoff. The kneelers, among others who stayed in locker-rooms or…

  John Kelly

  September 25, 2017

  Feature

• Some etymological—and political—lessons of “condemn”

  The word condemn is surprisingly related to the Irish word for “poem.”  White supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, leading to the death of three people, including Heather Heyer, a counter-protester driven down by an Ohio terrorist with neo-Nazi sympathies. It took President Trump a woeful two days to directly condemn this violence and…

  John Kelly

  August 15, 2017

  Feature