You Keep Using That Word/Very Pedantic: Difference between revisions

*** And the Soviet-controlled 'satellite countries' were technically republics (there were regular elections, and the countries were ruled by the same instruments of power as in any other republic) but these instruments were warped by e.g. fixing the local party-to-opposition ratio, so that opposition could never overpower the Soviet-backed party. This is why they are often called 'façade republics' or 'controlled republics'.

** According to Cicero, one of the last consuls of [[The Roman Republic]], a Republic was a combination of the three types of government: aristocracy (via the Senate), democracy (through the Legislative Assemblies and the veto-holding Tribunes), and monarchy (through the Consuls).

*** It also doesn't help matters that "dictator" was originally a legitimate office of the Roman republic in times of emergency.

* '''Tyrant''' in the original, ancient Greek meaning, was a single person who ruled over a city through usurpation. It was a value-neutral term, not a pejorative for an evil or oppressive ruler. Many ancient Greek tyrants were actually very well-liked. That said, the negative connotation of 'tyrant' also comes from Ancient Greece: specifically Athens, where the term first showed up, when they had an 'evil tyrant'. It's been negative ever since. Strictly speaking, the meaning was "a ruler whose rule doesn't come from the state's laws" (i.e. synonymous with "usurper"). As such, the name was often used to describe rulers appointed by foreign powers (like in the states conquered by the Persian Empire).

** Someone who is primarily attracted to adults but has sex with prepubescent children is not necessarily a pedophile. Many child molesters don't have a particular attraction to children, but are simply exploiting a vulnerable warm body; analogous phenomena include prison rapes.

*** It is worth noting that in the typology of sexual offenders there are also people who are attracted to children due to their own heavy regression that renders them unable to relate to other adults. They are usually not categorized as pedophiles but as 'regressed child molesters'.

** A sexual preference for pubescent children (around 11-14 years) is not pedophilia, but hebephilia. "Prepubescent" is quite different from merely "under the legal age of consent".

*** You may see the term 'ephebophilia' (sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19) used to make a similar distinction. Interestingly, while such a distinction is usually scoffed at in Internet discussion, it can have an enormous impact on the legal/psychological consideration of specific cases.

**** In case you were wondering, the potential singular and plural forms are as follows: one seraph/cherub; two seraphs/seraphim/seraphin/cherubs/cherubim/cherubin. Seraphims and cherubims are right out.

* '''Mayhem''' is commonly used to mean chaos and disorder, but the original, and legal, definition is the act of maiming. People misinterpreted the word from phrases like "violence and mayhem", and the definition stuck.

** There's even an entire botanical clade known as Succulent Plants. They are named so for their ability to retain water in arid conditions.

* '''Orthodoxy''': While orthodox has taken on the meaning of "traditional", particularly in matters of faith, the term originally meant something more like "right opinion". The word literally derives from the Greek words ''orthos'', meaning "right/correct", and ''doxa'', meaning "opinion/to think/praise". Assumedly, the connotation of "traditional", "established", or "backwards" connotations came relatively recently, as people who self-identified as "orthodox" also tended to reject more modernist predilections towards reform and progressivism. To understand this a little better, think of the East/West schism in Christianity, when there was no forward thinking foil for the "Orthodox" party.