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 pain.
2. 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.]
zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu
Posted by Arnold Zwicky at July 3, 2005 02:18 PM