Defining honor

To the Editor:

Allow me to thank Rachel Kamins for the second half of her column on the misuse of the English language by public speakers today ["Honoring the power of speech," 11/6/98, YH]. It is based on an excellent premise and comments on a very real problem in today's public discourse. However, the central example—Al Gore's speech in Oklahoma—is most emphatically not an appropriate one.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "honor" as: 1. High respect, esteem, or reverence, accorded to exalted worth or rank; deferential admiration or approbation. This definition is precisely that which Gore was using. Gore renders respect to men and women who were killed because they represented the government in the mind of a terrorist. Gore stated with deliberate intent that we as a people should hold in "exalted worth" all those who have died because of the freedom this country allows.

The next definition is the one Ms. Kamins seems to have been referring to: 2. A personal title of high respect or esteem; honourableness; elevation of character; nobleness of mind, scorn of meanness, magnanimity; a fine sense of and strict allegiance to what is due or right.

This is unambiguously a correct usage, but to say that it is the only one is as ridiculous as it would be to say that the word "Bulldog" refers only to the members of Yale sports teams.

--Ben Warfield, MC '00

Back to Opinion...