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20 Cards in this Set

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terrorism
1795. "Government intimidation during the Reign of Terror in France" (1793-July 1794), from Fr. terrorisme (1798), from L. terror. General sense of "systematic use of terror as a policy" is first recorded in Eng. 1798. Terrorize "coerce or deter by terror" first recorded 1823. Terrorist in the modern sense dates to 1947, especially in reference to Jewish tactics against the British in Palestine -- earlier it was used of extremist revolutionaries
It began as a term to describe governments' use of terror against uprisings, and now it refers to peoples' tactics against governments.
candidate
1613, from L. candidatus "white-robed," from candidus. Office-seekers in ancient Rome wore white togas.
Same
tyranny
1368, "cruel or unjust use of power," from O.Fr. tyrannie (13c.), from L.L. tyrannia "tyranny," from Gk. tyrannia "rule of a tyrant," from tyrannos "master" (see tyrant).
It began as a term to describe the unjust use of power, but now it refers to the person wielding said power.
filibuster
flibutor "pirate," probably ultimately from Du. vrijbuiter "freebooter," used of pirates in the West Indies as Sp. filibustero and Fr. flibustier, either or both of which gave the word to Amer.Eng. (see freebooter). Used 1850s and '60s of lawless adventurers from the U.S. who tried to overthrow Central American countries. The legislative sense is first recorded c.1851, probably because obstructionist legislators "pirated" debate. Not technically restricted to U.S. Senate, but that's where the strategy works best.
It began as a term used to mean pirate, much as a legislator who gives deliberately lengthy speeches is hi-jacking the high seas of the US Senate.
sabotage
There are three possible explanations, all of them based on the French word sabot, listed in order of reliability. The first states that the term was coined during the railway strike of 1910, when workers destroyed the wooden shoes, or sabots, that held rails in place, thus impeding the morning commute. Next, the word comes from the slang name for people living in rural areas who wore wooden shoes after city dwellers had begun wearing leather shoes; when employers wanted strikebreakers they would import 'sabots'/rural workers to replace the strikers. Not used to machine-driven labor the 'sabots' worked poorly and slowly. The strikers would be called back to work (with demands won) and, could win demands on the job by working like their country cousins - the sabots. Thus 'sabotage'.
Same
Senator
1205, "legal and administrative body of ancient Rome," from O.Fr. senat or L. senatus "highest council of the state in ancient Rome," lit. "council of elders," from senex (gen. senis) "old man, old" (see senile). Attested from c.1374 in ref. to governing bodies of free cities in Europe; of national governing bodies from 1560; specific sense of upper house of U.S. legislature is recorded from 1775
Same
bedlam
A colloquial pronunciation of to Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, a London hospital founded 1247 as a priory, mentioned as a hospital 1330 and as a lunatic hospital 1402; converted to a state lunatic asylum on dissolution of the monasteries in 1547. 1667.
It no longer refers to Bethlehem, but it does mean a scene of mass chaos or confusion.
red herring
something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand; a misleading clue.
3. Also called red-herring prospectus. Finance. a tentative prospectus circulated by the underwriters of a new issue of stocks or bonds that is pending approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: so called because the front cover of such a prospectus must carry a special notice printed in red.
Same
liberty
FI1375, from O.Fr. liberté "freedom," from L. libertatem (nom. libertas) "freedom, condition of a freeman," from liber "free".
Same
capitol
With reference to the Roman citadel, it is recorded from 1375. In 1793, Thomas Jefferson used it to mean, "building where U.S. Congress meets," it is ultimately from L. Capitolium, temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill in ancient Rome.
Filler info.
Uncle Sam
1813. Symbol of the US coined during the war with Britain as a contrast to John Bull, and no doubt suggested by the initials U.S. "[L]ater statements connecting it with different government officials of the name of Samuel appear to be unfounded" [OED]. The common figure of Uncle Sam began to appear in political cartoons c.1850. Only gradually superseded earlier Brother Jonathan (1776), largely through the popularization of the figure by cartoonist Thomas Nast. British in World War I sometimes called U.S. soldiers Sammies.
Same
parliament
1290, from O.Fr. parlement (11c.), originally "speaking, talk," from parler "to speak" (see parley); spelling altered c.1400 to conform with M.L. parliamentum. Anglo-L. parliamentum is attested from 1216. Parliamentarian originally (1644) was a designation of one of the sides in the Eng. Civil War; meaning "one versed in parliamentary procedure" dates from 1834
Originally meant "to speak", it now refers to a speaker or the place.
third world
Coined by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in the 1950s, "third world" refers to economically underdeveloped countries. Sauvy was making an analogy between pre-industrial nations with the poor of pre-Revolutionary France, who were considered part of the "third estate."
When the concept became popularized, it was extended to include "first" (industrialized or westernized) and "second" (communist) worlds. These distinctions have become less useful with the end of the Cold War.
Same
tsar
1290, from O.Fr. parlement (11c.), originally "speaking, talk," from parler "to speak" (see parley); spelling altered c.1400 to conform with M.L. parliamentum. Anglo-L. parliamentum is attested from 1216. Parliamentarian originally (1644) was a designation of one of the sides in the Eng. Civil War; meaning "one versed in parliamentary procedure" dates from 1834.
Same
cold war
First published by George Orwell in an article for the Tribune, October 19, 1945: "A State which was...in a permanent state of "cold war" with its neighbours." Herbert Hayward Swope used the phrase in a draft speech for Bernard Baruch in 1946. Baruch omitted the phrase from the final draft of the 1946 speech, but did use it in a 1947 speech in Columbia, SC. Walter Lippmann, a journalist, made it standard currency to descripe post-war tensions between the two former allies, the US and the USSR.
Same
Origin, date of first recorded use, then&now, and populizer of ethnic cleansing
FI
FI
hierarchy
1343, from O.Fr. ierarchie, from M.L. hierarchia "ranked division of angels" (in the system of Dionysius the Areopagite), from Gk. hierarchia "rule of a high priest," from hierarches "high priest, leader of sacred rites," from ta hiera "the sacred rites" (neut. pl. of hieros "sacred") + archein "to lead, rule." Sense of "ranked organization of persons or things" first recorded 1619, initially of clergy, probably infl. by higher.
Filler info.
Origin, date of first recorded use, then&now, and populizer of globalization
FI
FI
elite
1823, from Fr. élite "selection, choice," from O.Fr. fem. pp. of elire, elisre "pick out, choose," from L. eligere "choose". Borrowed in M.E. as "chosen person," esp. a bishop-elect, died out c.1450, re-introduced by Byron's "Don Juan." As a typeface, first recorded 1920. Elitist, elitism are first attested 1950 (the original examples were Freud, Nietzsche, and Carlyle).
FI
kampf
German word for struggle or fight. It became part of the English langauge as a result of German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church , enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck.
FI