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Subject: Meaning of "folks"
From: Gnarlodious <gnarlodiousNULL@VOID.invalid.yahoo.com>
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Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:18:19 GMT
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I've noticed lately the word "folks" is undergoing a drastic change of
meaning in my lifetime. I hear it used by talk radio,TV hosts and even
George Bush in the exact opposite way it was traditionally used.
Traditionally:
simple people, parents, kin, neighbors, peasants, landsman, countryman
Modern:
"They need to extract information from these folks" (terrorists)
"These folks are on death row for 20 years now" (prisoners)
"The folks at Walt Disney..." (CEO's)
"a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who
committed this act" (terrorists)
What's going on with this word? Is "Folk Music" now "Terrorist Music"? Is it
an insidious propaganda campaign to deprive us of the comfort of "folks" and
leave us parentless, kinless and neighborless? An attack on the traditions
of language preparing us for the a New American Century?
-- Gnarlie
http://www.Gnarlodious.com
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