Word: men
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Combat inevitably sharpens both emotions and rhetoric. It is an incendiary combination to be young, black, armed, 10,000 miles from home and in persistent danger of death in "a white man's war." When the men return to "the world," their perspective may shift, and doubtless many black soldiers will become so busy with their own affairs that their militance will fade somewhat. Even in Viet Nam, 53% of the black men interviewed said that they would not join a militant group such as the Black Panthers when they return to the U.S. Says Major Wardell Smith...
...Israeli units were engaged in the biggest combined air, land and sea operation since the Six-Day War with the Arabs in 1967. Naval commandos were the first to go into action in the Gulf of Suez, blasting two Egyptian torpedo boats. Next, an Israeli armored unit of 150 men ferried across the gulf in landing craft, spent ten hours shooting up troops, bases and radar installations with utter impunity along a dusty strip of Egyptian coastline. Not until two days later did the Egyptians reply by sending swarms of MIG fighters and Sukhoi bombers aloft, but Israel...
From a Greek word meaning "to use words of good omen," euphemism is the substitution of a pleasant term for a blunt one-telling it like it isn't. Euphemism has probably existed since the beginning of language. As long as there have been things of which men thought the less said the better, there have been better ways of saying less. In everyday conversation the euphemism is, at worst, a necessary evil; at its best, it is a handy verbal tool to avoid making enemies needlessly, or shocking friends. Language purists and the blunt-spoken may wince when...
...their prudery, the Victorians were considerably more willing than modern men to discuss ideas-such as social distinctions, morality and death -that have become almost unmentionable. Nineteenth century gentlewomen whose daughters had "limbs" instead of suggestive "legs" did not find it necessary to call their maids "housekeepers," nor did they bridle at referring to "upper" or "lower" classes within society. Rightly or wrongly, the Victorian could talk without embarrassment about "sin," a word that today few but clerics use with frequency or ease. It is even becoming difficult to find a doctor, clergyman or undertaker (known as a "mortician...
...reason. But the inclination to speak of certain things in uncertain terms is a reminder that there will always be areas of life that humanity considers too private, or too close to feelings of guilt, to speak about directly. Like stammers or tears, euphemisms will be created whenever men doubt, or fear, or do not know. The instinct is not wholly unhealthy; there is a measure of wisdom in the familiar saying that a man who calls a spade a spade is fit only...