Posted on 06/02/2005 4:52:40 AM PDT by secret garden
Word For The Day, Thursday, June 2, 2005
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
shibboleth \SHIB-uh-lith; -leth\, noun
1. A word or pronunciation that distinguishes a particular class or set of persons from another.
2. A word or saying identified with a group or cause; a slogan; a catchword.
3. A saying or belief identified with a particular group and usually regarded by outsiders as meaningless or untrue.
4. A custom, practice, behavior, etc. regarded as distinctive of a particular group. / In the late '60s, however, the loud, open use of the "F" word became a true shibboleth, dividing the student radicals from the Establishment "pigs" they delighted in tweaking. --Elizabeth Austin, "A small plea to delete a ubiquitous expletive: can't we all get along without the 'f' word?" [1]US News & World Report, April 6, 1998
Newspapers accused the West of trying to foment anti-Russian feelings and revive the cold war, substituting the old "Soviet threat" with the new shibboleth "Russian mafia." --Michael Satchell, "Kremlin gilt - or is it guilt?" [2]US News & World Report, September 20, 1999
Most cases, she says, involve the charges of secular humanism -- a "shibboleth invented by far-right organizations and others who object to textbooks, library books and curriculum materials that do not promote their particular brand of religion." --Thomas S. Elliott, "Fight heats up over censoring schoolbooks," [3]US News & World Report, February 20, 1984
Class size is another shibboleth: First, small class sizes do not increase learning, and, second, class sizes have become quite small anyway. --Jay Nordlinger, "The Anti-Excusers," [4]National Review, October 27, 2003
This could not be stated, because the doctrines in the name of which the revolution was carried out -- and which, ironically enough, the revolution did so much to expose and discredit -- were too strongly ingrained as official radical shibboleths to which lip-service was still paid. --Isaiah Berlin, [5]The Sense of Reality
Christmas church attendance will be the last shibboleth of Christian devotion in Europe to fall: it has a wealth of sentiment, mid-winter cheer and good tunes to keep pulling the crowds. --Madeleine Bunting, "Paralysed by panic," [6]Guardian, December 20, 2004
Etymology: Shibboleth is from Hebrew shibboleth, "stream, flood," from the use of this word in the Bible ([7]Judges 12:4-6) as a test to distinguish Gileadites from Ephraimites, who could not say 'sh' but only 's' as in 'sibboleth'.
Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence.
The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day.
The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-)
Practice makes perfect.....post on....
Good Morning Class. Welcome to School!
Here is my example with WFTD.
If the lefties can persist in the shibboleth of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, surely turnabout is fair play.]
Review Threads:
Review Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish (Be SURE to check out posts #92 and #111 on this thread!)
Review Thread Two: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/14/03: Roister
Review Thread Three: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/28/03: Obdurate
WFB's attempt to emulate us ; ) No pushing at the door please!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
did ya lose your Acme De-stemifier there LP? ;)
Am I on time?
Morning! A quick one, then I'm off to work-
The MSM's new shibboleth-
Their latest icon of slime
Is the one who dropped the dime on
Partners in the Watergate crime
But is Felt really "Deep Throat"
Or is his confession just a ruse
By the ratings-challenged networks
To try to make real news
Or is it that his family
Finds itself down on luck
And so promotes a sleazy book deal-
Anything to make a buck
It's orginal function was a filtering device, the unknown (to the user) nuances of which would belie the user as a spy.
So, it's kinda fun that the Left goes apoplectic when we spot their code words and call them on it. Politically correct terms, refusing to call a terrorist a terrorist, always using the phrase, "right wing" to describe a Republican, and never using "left wing" to describe a Democrat, are all shibboleths that helpfully identify the smiling speaker no matter what else they may profess.
We've even evolved to shibboleth sarcasm with phrases like, "pajamajadin" or "not that there's anything wrong with that" or, "I have the utmost respect for our troops, but..."
Now, off to work!
Happy B'day, G.
YOU GOT A JOB and DIDN"T TELL US??? : (
Watergate, with Mr. Felt's assistance, seems to have made The Washington Post another co-equal branch of government....a notion the Post apparently still clings to today.
Mmmmmmm....chicken baked on hot asphalt....tasty!
Believing the Bible
has become
a big shiboleth
branding those
who choose to believe
that their genitalia's bing
has more beatitude
than the Holy Spirit.
Farily common occurance in these here parts !
I just told 'ya! LOL!!
Fun, part-time, no big responsibilites, very creative...
:o)
sounds absolutely perfect!
Deep Throat's uncover
Ends media shibboleth.
'Twas all politics.
This gives lie to the shibboleth that that tenure doesn't prevent Getting rid of teachers for inexcusable behavior.
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