Bob Yates writes:

> The events of the past week provide all kinds of interesting examples of
how
> important it is to use the right words.
>
> I just saw Bush in a joint interview with Chirac, President of France.
Chirac said
> clearly that he would not use the word "war" to describe the conflict we
are now
> in. It is interesting that Bush didn't use it either.  Why might some
people avoid
> the term war?
>
> The best example of word choice is crusade.  Apparently, Bush recently
talked about
> the need for a "crusade" against those how carried out the events of
September 11.
> Almost immediately Muslim countries in the Middle East reacted against
that
> formulation.  If I were teaching the right course, I might want to bring
up whether
> "crusade" is the appropriate word to describe the struggle we are in.
What is its
> original meaning?

I'm not sure that Bush would have known the original meaning , but it comes
from an Old French word that, I believe, means "to bear the cross." I
suppose it has more to do with carrying the cross to the holy land than with
any more modern metaphorical interpretation of "bearing the cross." It's
easy to see why Muslims would object more to a crusade than to a war.

Paul E. Doniger

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