July 03, 2005

Rummy's last throe

throe
Over on the American Dialect Society mailing list, Larry Horn posted on 28 June about U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's instructions on lexicography:

"The lethality is up," Rumsfeld said. "Last throes could be a violent last throe, just as well as a placid or calm last throe. Look it up in the dictionary."

Singular throe reminded Horn of singular kudo, so he took Rumsfeld's advice to check out "the dictionary".  Which Rumsfeld should have done himself.


A fuller account of Rumsfeld's adventures in lexicography, in Horn's telling:

Rumsfeld, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," defended Vice President Dick Cheney's widely criticized remarks that the insurgency was in its "last throes," even as he predicted a possible near-term increase in violence.

The number of attacks had remained "about level," but the insurgents were becoming more deadly, Rumsfeld said. The U.S. death toll in Iraq exceeds 1,700, and last week six Americans were killed in a bomb attack in Falluja.

"The lethality is up," Rumsfeld said. "Last throes could be a violent last throe, just as well as a placid or calm last throe. Look it up in the dictionary."

Horn is on the job:

As always, one cannot be sure which dictionary is "the dictionary", but the one closest to hand, AHD4, doesn't help identify that placid throe, or indeed even the violent one, when it's used as a singular:

throe n.  1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth. See synonyms at pain2. throes A condition of agonizing struggle or trouble: a country in the throes of economic collapse.

Presumably, it's not the spasm of pain that's involved here, but the condition of agonizing struggle.  Unlike "kudos", "throes" did originate as a (Middle English) plural, but singular "throe" (e.g. of revolution) has long since gone the way of "kempt" or "couth" and thus now represents a reanalysis-cum-back-formation from "throes". I'm sure google would have provided the Secretary with many models for his usage, but it hasn't made it into "the dictionary" yet.

(P.S.  If you're keeping score, Rummy also allowed that this particular last throe may last up to 12 years.)

So much for Rummy's last throe. [Added 3 July: Ben Zimmer now points out that Jon Stewart also consulted a dictionary on The Daily Show, to considerable comic effect.  The clip can be downloaded here.]

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Posted by Arnold Zwicky at July 3, 2005 02:18 PM