Letter to the Editor

Using 'nazi' shows misunderstanding

"Now, where does that come from?" Have you ever asked yourself that question after glibly uttering a word, phrase or cliché you inadvertently learned some time in your impressionable youth?

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," "The rule of thumb is ...," "If I had a dollar for every time ...." The English language is a rich and varied one, and I wonder sometimes, "What did I just say?"

Let's take the phrase, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" for example. That stems from the idea that one way to evaluate the health of a horse is to look at its teeth and gums. The meaning is that if someone gives you something, you should just appreciate it for what it is. It would be rude and ungrateful to evaluate the gift, as opposed to just politely accepting it. Simple enough.

Now let's look at the ole "rule of thumb." There are a few stories about its origin. Some people believe it came from using one's thumb to make rough estimates in measurement, since a thumb is (supposed to be) about an inch. Another idea, however, dates to colonial America and originates in old English common law. It stems from the idea that wives used to be a type of "property" of their husbands, who could beat them as long as the switch used was no bigger around than the man's thumb. Hmmm.

Even if the latter origin of the phrase is false, it is now ingrained in my memory. I can no longer use or hear the phrase in conversation without thinking about its possible past meaning. That's how language works. A word or phrase doesn't mean anything until meaning is assigned to it. Then it becomes a symbol for that meaning. The same things happens with visual symbols.

The four-armed swastika was used for centuries by cultures around the world to symbolize health, goodwill and peace before a certain dictator changed the meaning of the symbol for the majority of the world. Now it is a sign of hate.

The reason why I'm writing this letter is to remind people of another, related symbol of hate, the word "nazi." We tend to use it in many different circumstances: "femi-nazi," "kitchen-nazi," "soup-nazi."

But is it really appropriate to use in those circumstances? Do we really think about what the word symbolizes? I would like to ask Christopher Gillott, who wrote the Oct. 4 column "Federal tobacco lawsuit ploy to steal companies' money," if the "cigarette-nazis" (those who proposed a federal lawsuit against tobacco companies) he refers to are the ones who enslaved and/or murdered millions of people, including Jews, "homosexuals," Roma (Gypsies), persons with disabilities, Poles, communists, Jehovah's Witnesses and others? I doubt it.

One can say that, just as a symbol can be given an evil meaning, the people oppressed by it can (and should) wrestle it away from that evil and give it a positive meaning. In this case, the people being oppressed by the symbol still see it as evil, and it's up to them to attribute new meaning to it.

If and until that switch happens, we should all consider what comes out of our mouths, and respect the pain that our inadvertent words may cause others. I'm not asking that people be slaves to "political correctness," but rather that we should simply think about what we say (and mean) before we say it.

Dan Merson
instructor for the College of Engineering