[PD] [OT] Re: about sexism

[Chris McCormick]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 02:18:00AM -0400, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, Chris McCormick wrote:
> >implying that the phrase "Mongolian hordes" represents a historically 
> >valid viewpoint is perpetuating a western-biased (racist) falsehood.
> 
> "horde" is not a viewpoint. It's a noun. It means "political subdivision 
> of a (central asian) nomadic people". It comes for Turkic "orda" meaning a 
> Khan's residence.

I stand corrected.

> >The mere fact that everyone knows what we're talking about when we say 
> >"mongolian hordes"
> 
> If you use political correctness to get a word loaded with connotations to 
> be replaced by a brand new word, the old connotations tend to be carried 
> over to the new word. Thus those are not so much properties of a specific 
> word, than a topic of public opinion. This is something that is best fixed 
> by education and not by "dictionary engineering".

I did not advocate "dictionary engineering".

Best,

Chris.


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