PSEPHOLOGY

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Dr. Goodword
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PSEPHOLOGY

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu May 20, 2010 12:18 am

• psephology •

Pronunciation: see-fah-lê-jee • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: The study of elections and election polling, usually a subfield of sociology.

Notes: For all the political talk shows and articles in the US we rarely hear or read this word. It comes with a full panoply of derived forms: psephological is the adjective, psephologically, the adverb, and a practitioner of this science is a psephologist.

In Play: We should hear more comments like this: "Before tossing his hat into the political ring, Corry Publican talked to several psephologists about the latest psephological forecasts." If talk show hosts should ever turn to experts for their opinions, we will hear them saying things like this: "After losing three runs for Congress, Jerry Mandor decided to retire and teach psephology at the local college."

Word History: Today's Good Word gives us a glimpse into the history of voting. Like ballot, which comes from an Italian word meaning "a little ball", today's word is made up of Greek psephos "pebble, ballot" + log-os "word, idea, thought" + the English noun suffix -y. The Greek word for "pebble" came to mean "vote, ballot" from the use of pebbles in voting in ancient Greece. Greek psephos came from the same original root that emerged in Latin as sabulum "sand" and in the Germanic languages as German Sand and English sand. (Any psephologist worth his salt would tell you that Luciano de Oliveira, the Brazilian Dude of the Alpha Agora, has earned a vote of thanks for suggesting today's very topical Good Word.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

skinem
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Postby skinem » Thu May 20, 2010 9:14 am

...or as one of my poli sci profs said way back when--"reading tea leaves" when he referred to polling...

It is amazing to me how accurate they can be if done right.

bnjtokyo

Postby bnjtokyo » Thu May 20, 2010 10:37 pm

Deleted
Last edited by bnjtokyo on Sun May 23, 2010 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Perry
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Postby Perry » Sat May 22, 2010 9:17 pm

Dear Skinem,

I would appreciate it if you would correct the attribution. Please note that both the former attribution to Thomas Jefferson and current attribution to me are incorrect. The actual source appears to be former President Gerald Ford on Aug 12, 1974.
Are you on a rant? (I ask because this is not at all typical for you.) How many times do you need to mention this to Skinem?
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

bnjtokyo

Postby bnjtokyo » Sun May 23, 2010 5:25 am

It started out rather simply. I notice that Skinem had attributed the quotation to Jefferson, but somehow the language in the quote didn't sound like Jefferson or even 18th/19th century English. I got curious and wondered if Jefferson had actually said it. When I found that he most likely didn't, I thought (and continue to think) that it is inappropriate to perpetrate the misattribution. So I asked Skinem to change the attribution and provided what the Jefferson Library thinks is the correct source. Maybe I offended Skinem because he changed the attribution to my name on this forum, which, frankly, offended me. I also discovered that when he changed it, it unfortunately automatically appeared on all his posts, not merely his new posts, post change.

At this point it looks rather pointless. If Skinem won't change the attribution, I guess I'll have to change my screen name or disappear like some others have. I don't want to be associated with something I didn't say.

Sigh.

skinem
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Postby skinem » Sun May 23, 2010 3:02 pm

Not offended, non-plussed.

Lighten up, bnjtokyo. It's been changed--in fact, it had already been changed when you posted the above.

There is a private message function which could have been well utilized.

Seemingly no sense of humor...and as such, I will apologize for any offense given.

Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon May 24, 2010 3:49 pm

I did not mean that you are on a rant because you want Skinem to correct an attribution. I asked because you addressed this issue everywhere you saw one of his postings. A simple private message, or a single post on your part would have gotten the job done.

Please don't disappear again. We are fine with the cranks who have left us, but saddened by soe of the excellent posters who have faded away.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous


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