Sunday, August 17, 2014

Casting Dispersions

Overread in a previous post:

"It appeared to cast dispersions on a young man that was gunned down in the street. It made emotions raw."

Of course the Governor meant "cast aspersions" and not "cast dispersions."  The words are related at their core as a simple analysis reveals:


aspersion (n.) Look up aspersion at Dictionary.com
mid-15c., from Latin aspersionem (nominative aspersio) "a sprinkling," noun of action from past participle stem of aspergere "to sprinkle on," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + spargere "sprinkle, strew" (see sparse). Originally in theology, the shedding of Christ's blood. Modern sense of "a bespattering with slander" first attested 1590s. To cast aspersions was in Fielding (1749).


Compare:


dispersion (n.) Look up dispersion at Dictionary.com
late 14c., from Old French dispersion (13c.), from Latin dispersionem (nominative dispersio) "a scattering," noun of action from past participle stem of dispergere (see disperse).


Both crowd aspersion and crowd dispersion are happening in Ferguson. The latter got me interested in tear gas, it being chemical and all. From the Wiki:
Tear gas, formally known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (from lacrima meaning "tear" in Latin), is a non-lethal chemical weapon that stimulates the corneal nerves in the eyes to cause tearspain, and even blindness. Common lachrymators include pepper spray (OC gas), CS gasCR gasCN gas (phenacyl chloride), nonivamidebromoacetonexylyl bromidesyn-propanethial-S-oxide (from onions), and Mace (a branded mixture).
Tear gas usage is long and storied -- most famously perhaps during the First World War (cf. xylyl bromide, by the Germans, a century ago). I note how many (but not all) contain a halogen -- but no halos are being generated around the heads of the police.  Some lacrymators are wholly synthetic in origin. I expect the human rights and lefties to begin a movement to extend the Geneva Convention to the trenches of American Civil Rights movements, banning tear gas except for the "Mr. Natural" ones -- especially the one derived from The Onion. Or least we'll see some trenchant warfare against their use.

Wait for it.

18 comments:

The Dude said...

Were he a republican he would be stupid. But he's not.

edutcher said...

Droll, sir.

chickelit said...

You've been on a droll yourself, Ed. :)

ricpic said...

We're not talking permanent blindness are we? Because if the tear gas permanently blinded a yute we might be losing a future brain surgeon or sump'n.

Synova said...

Are you sure he didn't say "cas taspersions?"

When I say "cast" I almost make the "t" a "d" which makes sense because it's a past tense word which we usually form with an "ed". Say the words without a clear break between them and aspersions can certainly sound like dispersions.

chickelit said...

That's possible, synova, which would make it a transcription error which should have been caught by an alert editor. As if they have such things as editors any longer.

Synova said...

Ah... probably an underpaid copywriter at ABC.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Great catch Chicke.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Jay Nixon is not endearing himself to rural white voters with this, especially if it turns out that Wilson was justified in shooting Brown.

I hope he takes Hillary with him.

rcocean said...

BTW, the Germans used tear gas on a large scale during WW I. The point was to force troops and artillery gunners to don Gas masks, thereby reducing their effectiveness. It's hard to fire off a 75mm Gun when everyone is wearing a gas mask.

rhhardin said...

Dispersion is what you get when wave speed depends on wavelength.

rcocean said...

Dis Persian, Dat Persian.

rcocean said...

Cat Persian.

Michael Haz said...

Cast dispersion is what happens when a play closes and the actors seek work elsewhere.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Did you see this morning's Meet The Press hosr, Andrea Michell, criticized the police for releasing the video of the kid strong-arming the store clerk?

chickelit said...

What was her rationale, AJ?

chickelit said...

The same people pushing the shot-from-behind narrative were they same ones claiming it wasn't MB in the store video and that MB had never done anything wrong.

ken in tx said...

I once came up out of the subway onto the street in Seoul, South Korea and got a face full of tear gas. I know what it feels like and how it smells. Americans don't know what they don't know.