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Anu informs us that A Potemkin village is, in other words, whitewash taken to the Nth degree.
Is this a common usage of the term whitewash? I can't recall hearing the term outside of sport - a whitewash being a very one-sided game, usually reflected by the scoreline. While I can see a vague similarity between the two usages, I would never have used it to mean a cover-up, ruse, or however else Anu's usage can be expressed.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Very commonly a governmental attempt to cover up some mistake by publishing a phoney defense is called a whitewash. A barefaced lie attempting to conceal the truth.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Whitewash is commonly used hereabouts in the sense of "ruse" or "coverup."
Webster's defines "whitewash" to include "2: to give a speciously pure or fair appearance to: as a: to gloss over or cover up (as vices or crimes) b: to exonerate or clear (as a person) of charges by means of a superficial or perfunctory investigation or examination or through artful or biased presentation of data"
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Carpal Tunnel
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And wouldn't it be true that there are those who connive with whitewashers--or connive at whitewashing? Doesn't the derivation of conniving have to do with blinking the eye?
Curiously,
WW
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Carpal Tunnel
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If by blinking the eye you mean winking at, as in tacitly condoning then I would say, in my experience, no. To me it implies a more active, if covert, participation. M-W on line agrees with you, relegating my definition to 2b status.
Oh, derivation. Yeah. It's from the Latin word connivere, meaning to close the eyes.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, Faldage, for looking into that with eyes wide open.
So, that monkey who sees no evil is a conniving little ape, huh?
WW
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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that monkey who sees no evil is a conniving little ape
Well, not if you know the difference between apes and monkeys it isn't.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is it apes tell no tails?
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Carpal Tunnel
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That's sort of like saying the difference between turtles and snakes is that snakes have no legs, but otherwise that'll do.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whitewash is commonly used to mean a cover-up or to disguise some event by enacting another event which looks "sweet". Nixon attempted to whitewash the Watergate affair using several different ruses.
In non-American circles, I think this use of whitewash would certainly be more common than the sports-related use, although, of course, we do understand that one as well ...
So go ape, the lot of you!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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