Why the sagacious don’t use priapic or scrofulous

   It’s ironic that I’ve chosen to blog about words and meanings.

   I remember that whenever I asked my father the meaning of a word I wasn’t familiar with he always refused to tell me, instead he said, “Look it up in the dictionary.”

   Using the dictionary was definitely too much trouble, and I only did it grudgingly if I was working on a school assignment.

   Yet today, with the advent of the Internet, it’s almost fun to use the search engine of my choice to find out about why the sagacious, meaning reference to intelligent and discerning, never use the words priapic or scrofulous.

   After I looked up the words sagacious, priapic, scrofulous, I realized that in today’s political climate of scurrilous accusations against a sitting President, the so-called celebrities, and those sagacious members of the media never use priapic or scrofulous to describe the current President of the United States.

   In place of priapic or scrofulous the political class continues to deride this sitting President by using the political whistle words I referred to in my most recent “Words and Meanings” blog,and most frequently the word racist.

   And during the 2016 Presidential campaign, when NBC released a long held Access Hollywood promotional tape from over 10 years previous, the most sagacious media used the words, vulgar, lewd, abusive, womanizer.

   If the most sagacious celebrities plus those in the main stream media now label POTUS 45 with the word scrofulous, meaning immoral, the voters they are seeking to influence won’t bother to look up words in the dictionary, but they will use the scrofulous word.

   The word priapic, the meaning intent refers to male sexual activity and interests, would be a sagacious choice to use in derision when describing the current GOP President by the former Democratic opposition candidate, but that's not in Mrs. Clinton’s interest, considering the almost impeachment of her husband for moral turpitude.

    

I think it’s reasonable to conclude that the sagacious among us who intend to influence others want to use simplistic words, because their followers are like children, too lazy to use the dictionary to look up words they don’t know.  

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrofulous
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/priapic
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sagacious

Code words and equivalents

 In this 21^st century certain words are now dog whistles that symbolize codes.

  According to Wikipedia, “acronyms and abbreviations can be considered codes, and in a sense all languages and writing systems are codes for human thought.”

   For instance, the words third world countries was originally coined during the cold war to signify those nations that were aligned with the Soviet Union.

   After the end of the cold war, the neologism of third world countries was used to signify nations that had not advanced economically and whose people were perpetually unable to get enough food to sustain them, thus needing aid from prosperous Western nation countries.

   The meaning of the word euphemism is according to Oxford Dictionaries a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

   The third world countries  were often privately referred to with the euphemism or neologism to connote hell hole countries.

   Most recently in 2018 POTUS 45, according to Senator Dick Durbin used the euphemism that connotes shit hole, but POTUS 45 claims he used the neologism that connotes ass hole.

   All of the above caused a world wide furor.

   Every major media source world wide feigned the euphemism that connotes shit hole with the word racist.

   A racist is a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others, however a racist is also a bigot which connotes a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own.

   All of the above fits the definition of dog whistle politics.

   Figuratively, a dog whistle is a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people, but not by others.

Our country is divided by the 2 political parties unable to govern because a variety of all of the above code words are used to tar and feather.  

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=euphemism+meaning&fr=yfp-t-

s&fp=1&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Coined+word

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/racist

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/code%20word

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/racist

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/dog-whistle-political-meaning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_whistle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarring_and_feathering

 

 

Words gone south : oenophile and multihyphenate

   I wonder if the global world has seen the end of what used to be know as civilized living.

   We were once a society producing great thinkers who were also bon vivants dedicated to enjoying the world of pleasures afforded to those living well.

   In the 20^th century there were individuals who were regularly described as oenophile and multihyphenate.

  And others who strived to enter that privileged class were encouraged to sharpen their intellect and associate themselves with the trappings of living well, they sought to be conjoined into a mutually rewarding association.

   All of the currently associated with an oenophile and multihyphenate reputation are now either of a certain age or have already been celebrated within the obits of The New York Times in 2017,  but for yet another year since Jeff Bezos bought the Washington D. C. based newspaper, leading left leaning political thinkers and shakers who have perished in our time are more prominently featured in The Washington Post.

   Therein lies the cavernous separation of a different emphasis that leaves the oehophile and multihyphenate to the wayside in this new era of emphasis on chosen moralities and left of center political affiliations versus those with any other bent.

   I must admit that I miss the celebration of living well and collecting fine wines as a way of lifting out of the morass of daily life where survival is paramount in a world that is just ordinary instead of extraordinary.

   It occurs to me that the major print media now emphasizes stories about the ordinary person who is suffering under the yoke of those who have accumulated wealth who are not supporting a life where “musts” are set forth as government mandated.

   What is missing in the unexceptional start of this 21^st century is the magic of possibilities that exists in all of us to be a multihyphenate living well in the manner of the oenophile, but perhaps 2018 will herald a change back to living in a world where appreciation of the finer things in life is something to strive for.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oenophile 

https://www.wordnik.com/words/multihyphenate