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Sep 3, 2003

This week's theme
Words with origins in war

This week's words
nom de guerre
antebellum
polemic
bellicose
casus belli

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polemic

noun:
1. A controversial argument.
2. A person who engages in arguments or controversy; a controversialist.

adjective, also polemical:
Of or pertaining to a controversy or argument.

[From Greek polemikós, from pólemos (war). A related word is polemology (the science and study of human conflict and war).]

"However, there is unfortunately a degree of `the sky is falling' to this book. This tractate is clearly a polemic and a call for action."
A. Mark Clarfield; Mixing Politics and Public Health; The Jerusalem Post (Israel); May 8, 2001.

"In 1929, Virginia Woolf delivered a passionate polemic about the odds facing a woman born with a great gift for writing."
Edna O'Brien; Stone of the Heart; The New Yorker; Mar 24, 2003.

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