[BRIEF NOTE] New Words
Oct. 21st, 2005 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldJohn Barnes' 1995 exceptionally cynical and depressing novel Kaleidoscope Century, written at the end of the first phase of the Yugoslav wars of succession, introduces the verb "to serb." The word is never given a precise definition, but before you're more than a few dozen pages into the book you discover that "to serb" can be defined as the systematic and brutal assault upon violent communities, with a heavy emphasis upon murder, torture, and sexual assault. "The janjaweed serbed Darfuris."
It goes without saying that this verb is incredibly offensive, identifying rape and murder as it does with being Serb. And yet, words often get their start this--that's how "boycott" came about, after all. I wonder what new words we might get this way. "I sure kissingered Moldova." "Chechnya was putined."
It goes without saying that this verb is incredibly offensive, identifying rape and murder as it does with being Serb. And yet, words often get their start this--that's how "boycott" came about, after all. I wonder what new words we might get this way. "I sure kissingered Moldova." "Chechnya was putined."
