Maggie Thurber, of the famous "Thurber's Thoughts", has presented your humble lexicographer (look it up yourself, I had to) with an interesting challenge in one of her most recent postings for the SOS Dictionary.
For those of you unfamiliar with this hallowed tome, it is a compilation of words and phrases nominally part of the English language; but with special use and meaning here in Toledo, Ohio.
Never being one to be able to turn down a meaningless (ironic choice of words, don't you think?) and pointless challenge, I have attempted to rise to the occasion. Here therefore, is our most recent addition:
Cabal:
1. A group of people secretly uniting in a plot (such as to overthrow a government).
2. A group of people publicly uniting (through the use of a website, published materials in local media, and announcements on local radio and TV stations) in an attempt to take back the government of Toledo from a previously formed cabal.
3. The previously formed group of people who have been manipulating that same local government from behind the scenes and in secret for many years. (Is it just me, or does there seem to be a certain level redundancy to these definitions?)
4 comments:
this is GREAT!!!
You have exceeded expectations...
However, I'm still at a loss for what to call the first cabal which isn't really a cabal...because there is one decision-maker and a bunch of followers.
I shall continue to ponder...
Maggie,
I believe that the term you are looking for is "cult" ... and I'm not touching the Kool Aid.
Tim,
"(Is it just me, or does there seem to be a certain level redundancy to these definitions?)"
Doesn't it have more to do with what the meaning of "is" is?
(I think that Maggie's on to something with that cult angle)
HT,
As a lexicographer, the meaning of is is important to me. Why that is, I have yet to determine. Meanwhile, I remain confuse by the definitions of everything else/
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