

Feb 16, 2017 This week’s theme

American eponyms



This week’s words

bork

John Hancock

Benedict Arnold

McCarthyism

gerrymander



Cartoon: Herbert Block American eponyms A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg



McCarthyism PRONUNCIATION: (muh-KAHR-thee-iz-uhm)

MEANING: noun: The practice of making unfounded accusations against someone.

ETYMOLOGY: After US senator Joseph McCarthy (1909-1957) known for making unsubstantiated claims accusing people of being Communists, spies, or disloyal. Earliest documented use: in 1950 in a cartoon by Herbert Block.

USAGE:

Pakistan Needs to Guard Against McCarthyism; The Statesman (Peshawar, Pakistan); Dec 11, 2016.



See more usage examples of “There is a general intolerance of those in positions of power of views contrary to their own. Pakistan today needs, more than ever, to guard against McCarthyism.”Pakistan Needs to Guard Against McCarthyism;(Peshawar, Pakistan); Dec 11, 2016.See more usage examples of McCarthyism in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the ground. -Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, editor, and orator (1817-1895)





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