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This one is for Martha. I've heard and read recently in an Atlantic article (they should know better!) this misuse of the word "hoi polloi" to mean the wealthy or upper crust of society. Of course, it means exactly the opposite since it is translated almost directly from Greek and means "the many" so it refers to the common folk. My question is this word morphing or are these people just ignorant?! My guess is that they are confusing this with "hoity-toity".
A few weeks ago I heard the term "hoi polloi" used on the radio show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me." I looked it up and found two conflicting definitions in Merriam-Webster:
1) Ordinary people : the general populace : mulitude, masses
2) people of distinction or wealth or elevated social status : elite
Apparently, misuse of the word is common enough to legitimize the "wrong" definition. I agree with Kulturvultur's guess as to the cause. I think it's just too high-falutin' to sound like something that means "common," so people assume it means the opposite.
In my opinion, such conflicting definitions renders the word useless. To use it clearly, you have to pad your sentence with supporting context, which is more work than it's worth.
An arena full of hockey fans would be referred to as the hoi polloi. An equal number of people at an opera performance would be reffered to as hoity toity. A large group is more likely to be hoi polloi relative to their majority in overall population. The wealthiest are always the the smallest sector. The generalization is that any large group would be hoi polloi, but that is not always true. There could be a pool hall across the street from a five star hotel. The snob factor makes the determination.
I suppose it's impossible to make this minor correction felt to an English speaker, but after two years of classical Greek in college (I started out as a Religion major) I cannot but wince slightly at "the hoi polloi". Since "hoi polloi" means "the many", as Kulturvultur said at the beginning, it sounds to my ear as though one ought to speak of hoi polloi (with "hoi" completely unemphasized, as "the" would be). But no doubt only a very few will find that sits well on their grammatical ear.
While I understand your discomfort with the hoi polloi, it is not at all uncommon for English to bring in foreign phrases and names with their native articles, then to treat them as fixed phrases, adding the English articles to the phrase.
Consider these (granted, they are mostly capitalized, but still … ) examples actually culled from the internet from reasonable credible sources:
The Le Mans is the most collectable and valuable GTA derivative.
The Eldorado at 300 Central Park West, on the Upper West Side of New York City, is the northernmost of four twin-towered luxury housing cooperatives.
Hastings in no way glorifies the Das Reich's march to Normandy.
The De Stijl, literally translated as “the style†was an art movement founded by architect by architect and painter Theo van Deosburg in 1917 in Leiden.
I decided to choose the Gli Scipioni after seeing the good reviews on trip advisor, and I wasn't disappointed.
Yeah, I always grit my teeth at "VIN numbers".
And it could be worse. I once heard someone refer to an automatic ATM machine. Really, I did!
While we're on the subject, what's your opinion of an extension number? I say simply "extension", but I admit it's not quite the same thing. Close, though.
Strictly as an aside, I once read that when Cook was exploring Australia (it was Cook, right?), he and his party topped a ridge and saw their first roo. He asked his guide(s) what in the world that was, and was told kanga roo—which being translated is "it's a roo".
I've always loved that story. I hope it's true.
Cecil Adams has a good column about kangaroos and other names.
But this column is 27 years old. Who knows what new story has arisen?
straightdope.com/columns/read/491/whats-the-origin-of-kangaroo-court
(I could not make this link work with a click. You'll have to copy and paste to your browser.)
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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