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.