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Nov 2, 2004
This week's theme
Toponyms

This week's words
neanderthal
zabernism
macedoine
cilice
corinthian

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

zabernism

(ZAB-uhr-niz-uhm) Pronunciation

noun: The misuse of military power; aggression; bullying.

[After Zabern, German name for Saverne, a village in Alsace, France. In 1912, in this village, a German military officer wounded a lame cobbler who laughed at him.]

"Both countries have been slaves to Kruppism and Zabernism -- because they were sovereign and free! So it will always be. So long as patriotic cant can keep the common man jealous of international controls over his belligerent possibilities, so long will he be the helpless slave of the foreign threat, and 'Peace' remain a mere name for the resting phase between wars."
H.G. Wells; In The Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace; 1918.

And what is Kruppism? It's an eponym, coined after Alfred Krupp (1812-1887), German industrialist and armament manufacturer. It implies indiscriminate trade in arms and war profiteering.

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