Fed: Word warriors prepare for war
By Don Woolford
CANBERRA, Feb 17 AAP - With the predeployment of Australian forces to the Gulf, thewordsmiths of war are at it again.
Why the pre? Presumably to soften the belligerent connotations of the word deployment.
Macquarie Dictionary publisher Susan Butler said today it sounded reassuring, but meant nothing.
Ms Butler said the prefix related to time or place. In this case, it shouldn't be attachedto the deployment, which was happening. If it applied to anything, it was the prospectivewar.
"It's been glibly attached, a sleight of hand," she said.
Ms Butler said predeployment came from the same stable of military euphemisms as "collateraldamage", but being less gross, it was less likely to be noticed and so more effective.
The word appears to have been first used by Defence Minister Robert Hill at an Adelaidedoorstop on January 11, the day after Prime Minister John Howard announced what he calleda forward deployment (can we have a backward deployment?).
Senator Hill has relentlessly used it ever since, and it has caught on. It's now --with or without a hyphen -- widely used by the opposition and the media.
It appears to be a variation on the favoured American term, preposition, which is evenmore euphemistic.
A spokeswoman said she didn't know if Senator Hill had coined predeployment or whatwas in his mind when he used it.
AAP dw/sb/ts
KEYWORD: IRAQ WORDS
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