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ArchivesRe: Saddam - It's a wonder that the rag don't tear...
in reply to a message by Gerhard
Sorry, I don't know the meaning. The name doesn't appear on any Arabic lists I've checked, but it could well derive from another Middle Eastern language.
I did want to note that many people at the time of the 1991 Gulf War were a little puzzled at George Bush's persistent pronunciation of the Iraqi dictator's name as SOD-um instead of the more conventional sah-DOM.
Now, Ol' George may have been a bit disconnected at times, but he certainly wasn't uneducated or stupid. So, I eventually concluded that it was deliberate and he did it for its insulting resemblance to "Sodom" and "sodomite". But maybe not...
Several years later, I heard what I considered a reliable political "expert" (can't remember who) on public TV comment that the pronunciation WAS deliberately insulting, but that SOD-um (spelling unknown) was a legitimate Iraqi word or slang term meaning "shoeshine boy". So GHWB WAS putting him down, but not in a way that was obvious to Westerners.
Anyone out there know if there's any validity to this explanation?
- Da.
I did want to note that many people at the time of the 1991 Gulf War were a little puzzled at George Bush's persistent pronunciation of the Iraqi dictator's name as SOD-um instead of the more conventional sah-DOM.
Now, Ol' George may have been a bit disconnected at times, but he certainly wasn't uneducated or stupid. So, I eventually concluded that it was deliberate and he did it for its insulting resemblance to "Sodom" and "sodomite". But maybe not...
Several years later, I heard what I considered a reliable political "expert" (can't remember who) on public TV comment that the pronunciation WAS deliberately insulting, but that SOD-um (spelling unknown) was a legitimate Iraqi word or slang term meaning "shoeshine boy". So GHWB WAS putting him down, but not in a way that was obvious to Westerners.
Anyone out there know if there's any validity to this explanation?
- Da.
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