Word: horridness
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Current Performance: in his three months in office, faced with galloping inflation and declining gold and dollar reserves, he first demanded a 10% cut in the government budget, then succeeded in devaluing the franc by 20% without ever using the horrid word "devaluation." ("Every country has its totems-holy things which are not mentioned.") To prevent a new round of inflation, he now demands selected price controls and a six months "wage truce" from labor. The latest Bank of France statement shows France for the first time in two years taking in appreciably more foreign exchange than it pays...
There were the raucous curses of a fat Kentucky harridan and the horrid spit of a North Carolina fanatic. But there was the fine, quiet dignity of a pretty, besieged Negro girl in Charlotte, and the warm and courageous heart of a gentle, white-haired woman in Little Rock. Where men and women of good will and good sense prevailed, the difficult, tradition-shattering, inevitable change moved...
...half Europe were pegged to it. Lately, though officially pegged since 1949 at 350 to the dollar, the franc has fallen almost as often as French governments. Last week at long last the French government took notice of the franc's real worth and, without using the horrid word devaluation, in fact devalued...
Mildly Improper? Then there was that horrid word, underprivileged. "The Americans use it because of their fashion for using long words they don't understand and rejecting short words like poor, which they consider mildly improper." It was. in short, just one more example of American "pretentious illiteracy." Added Lord Conesford: "How would it have been if Sir Winston Churchill, instead of saying, 'Give us the tools and we will finish the job,' had said, 'Donate us the implements and we shall finalize the assignment...
...famous New Boy would not show up. But cameramen had already given the delighted nation a glimpse of the future King of England scuffling about the playing field just like any other boy his age. It was, exulted the London Daily Mail, further evidence "of the growing democratization (horrid, inescapable word!) of the throne...