Word: modern
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...MODERN American speech, while not always clear or correct or turned with much style, is supposed to be uncommonly frank. Witness the current explosion of four-letter words and the explicit discussion of sexual topics. In fact, gobbledygook and nice-Nellyism still extend as far as the ear can hear. Housewives on television may chat about their sex lives in terms that a decade ago would have made gynecologists blush; more often than not, these emancipated women still speak about their children's "going to the potty." Government spokesmen talk about "redeployment" of American troops; they mean withdrawal. When...
...persistent source of modern euphemisms is the feeling, inspired by the prestige of science, that certain words contain implicit subjective judgments, and thus ought to be replaced with more "objective" terms. To speak of "morals" sounds both superior and arbitrary, as though the speaker were indirectly questioning those of the listener. By substituting "values," the concept is miraculously turned into a condition, like humidity or mass, that can be safely measured from a distance. To call someone "poor," in the modern way of thinking, is to speak pejoratively of his condition, while the substitution of "disadvantaged" or "underprivileged," indicates that...
...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...
...overseeing the territories captured during the Six-Day War: the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank of the Jordan River, and the Golan Heights. The new boundaries, created under a United Nations ceasefire, soon came to be violated almost daily. One of the deadliest border conflicts of modern history was under...
...apparent concession is welcomed with wonder and relief; but the Jews are expected to be more reasonable, so that any intransigence on their part is regarded with special impatience. Moreover, Israel is a Western, industrial power and its precise and powerful strikes against guerrilla forces?no matter how much modern equipment the Arab nations have received from Russia?somehow make the struggle seem unequal...