Friday, July 10, 2009

Maybe we do need a new word

Over at Commentary's blog, we see:

As far as I know, there is no word in English for the opposite of jingoist. But if there were, its entry in the dictionary would belong next to Barack Obama’s photograph. It seems he can’t set foot on foreign soil without apologizing for this country’s past sins and promising that it will sin no more under his leadership. In doing so, of course, he both disses his own country and praises himself by implication.

Indeed, Gilbert and Sullivan, character never proposed a word for:

The idiot who praises with enthusiastic tone
Each century but this and every country but his own

Because all examples of such would wind up on his little list, and dispatched.

But since we don't have that option, may I propose, "ognijist", from "jingo", spelled backwards?

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