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Recently, say during the past year or more, I have been hearing people use the word travesty frequently. Often times, the word sounds out of place, as if the speaker misspoke and meant to use the word tragedy. To my understanding travesty is a parody or an extreme exaggeration. Is that correct? Has anyone else noticed a sudden influx in the use of travesty? Is there someone in the media using the word, that could influence the lay person? Similar to when many of the movie stars in 2000 used the term “surreal†incessantly (or whenever it took place).
Lastly, the following is taken from a blogger's comment regarding the Gaza blockade: “The blockade must go. It's a travesty of human rights.†If it is a parody of human rights then I don't get it, and if it's an exaggeration of human rights then I also don't get it. Wouldn't that mean the blockade is going above and beyond general guidlines for human rights, in turn making it a good thing?
I am confused, help?
Yohan, thanks for making me think about a word that I "know" - that is, understand in writing - but could not have put into my own words.
The Compact OED defines travesty as "absurd or grotesque misrepresentation," from the French travestir, to disguise.
I most commonly read this in sentences such as "a travesty of justice," meaning something that happens in the legal system but is a misrepresentation of justice.
Thanks, Yohan, for this post. I always used the two words interchangeably in the past (or actually I used "travesty" to mean "a really bad tragedy" strangely enough). Because of you, though, I looked it up, and now I'll never forget what it means because it has the same Latin roots as the word "transvestite!" (I think the two words got to English using quite different routes, though.)
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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