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The interesting thing about these terms is just how sensitive they make people, and why. I am pretty sure that if the cook's usual term for the conical sieve were "sun cap", no one would ever bother suggesting that a better, clearer and just as functional term was "conical sieve". [Check cookware sites if you doubt that this is a universally used term for the kitchen implement.]
For example, i have never seen any evidence that people go out of their way to say "fine clay plate" instead of "china"; yet that would certainly be a clearer description, and offend hardly anyone. And despite a probably accurate historical origin, I can easily see taking offense at "German shepherd", which suggests snarling, violent oppression by state police, too closely associated with 20th century German history. Clearly others have also bristled at the term, which seems to explain the rise of "Alsatian" as a substitute. And we need look no further than this decade's politics to find "french fry" reinvented as a loaded term, a food to be boycotted in order to give offense to the French for their position on Iraq.
Finally, although a Wikipedia entry seems to attribute "Chinese Wall" to the movable room dividers, this strikes me as unlikely, when there's an enormous, universally recognized landmark smack in front of our faces, visible from space, so they say, which cannot help but be associated with impenetrability, imperviousness, an absolute bar to communication--compared to the filmy partitions in an Asian house through which any fist may pass, or whisper be heard. OED citations seem to confirm the reference to the Great Wall.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Chinese Wall TheFallibleFiend 09/09/08 01:32 PM Re: Chinese Puzzle (wall...auction) Konditor 09/09/08 02:46 PM Re: Chinese Puzzle (wall...auction) BranShea 09/09/08 03:25 PM Re: Chinese Puzzle (wall...auction) The Pook 09/09/08 11:08 PM Re: Chinese Puzzle (wall...auction) BranShea 09/11/08 09:36 AM Re: Chinese Wall Myridon 09/09/08 02:51 PM Re: Chinese Wall Jackie 09/10/08 02:08 AM Re: Chinese Wall Buffalo Shrdlu 09/10/08 10:02 AM Re: Chinese Wall Konditor 09/11/08 03:47 PM Re: Chinese Wall Myridon 09/11/08 06:05 PM Re: Chinese Wall The Pook 09/12/08 02:09 AM
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