This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
alsatia
Carthaginian peace
Cathay
siberianize
Botany Bay

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(kar-thuh-JIN-ee-uhn pees)

MEANING:

noun: Peace or settlement in which very harsh terms are imposed on the defeated side.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Carthage, an ancient city-state, in present-day Tunisia. Earliest documented use: 1940.

NOTES:

The term harks back to the Punic Wars (264-146 BCE), where Rome decisively defeated its rival, Carthage. After the Third and final war, Rome didn’t just win; they went full scorched-earth (and possibly salted the earth so nothing would grow, though historians debate that part). Carthage was destroyed, forced to pay massive tributes, forbidden from having a military, its population killed or enslaved. The term was popularized by the economist John Maynard Keynes.

USAGE:

“Serbia’s strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, proclaimed peace last week in the rebellious province of Kosovo. ... Kosovo was, in truth, at peace, a Carthaginian peace of fire and total devastation.”
Eric Margolis; The Devastation in Kosovo Has to End; The Record (Kitchener, Canada); Oct 5, 1998.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: