• ad hominem •
Pronunciation: ahd-hah-mê-nim • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective, adverb
Meaning: 1. An attack on an opponent's character rather than a rebuttal of his or her positions in a debate. 2. An appeal to the emotions or prejudices of the reader rather than a logical argument.
Notes: I would not normally publish a phrase but here is a single word in English writen as two words to reflect its origin as a Latin phrase. It was originally limited to rhetoric but has since crept into the general vocabulary. It is, of course, a lexical orphan.
In Play: The first sense of this word is the most often encountered: "Senator Mander often responds with ad hominem attacks on his opponents rather than addressing the issues they raise." Its second sense is less often heard, but remains valid: "His appeal for pity on the plight of small farmers was a purely ad hominem argument for reducing the inheritance tax."
Word History: Today's Good Word clearly was taken from a Latin phrase consisting of two words: ad "(up)to, at" + homo, hominis "man(kind)". Latin inherited its ad from PIE ad "to, near, at", source also of English at. Homo originated as PIE (dh)ghem-/(dh)ghom- "earth(ling)", also underlying Sanskrit ksam- "earth", Greek khthon "earth, terra firma", Latin humus "soil, earth", Albanian dhe "earth", Polish ziemia "earth", Russian zemlya "earth", Serbian zemlja "earth", Czech země "earth", Welsh dyn "man, mortal", Breton and Cornish den "man, person", Lithuanian zeme "earth" and žmogus "man, person", and Latvian zeme "earth" and zemietis "earthling". (Now yet another e-bow for a Grandmaster of GW suggestions, William Hupy, for today's very topical spoken Good Word.)
