Doug Henwood wrote:
>> Yup to the epithet. I tried similar things to that (Mac Tiger comes
>> with the Oxford American Dictionary, which has the same etymology),
>> but he swore, based on "7 years of studying Greek & Latin," that if
>> you go further back, they have a common root.
>
Words don't have secret wishes. If he wants to call terrorists the scum
of the earth, he doesn't need etymology; he can just do that. I studied
Latin and Greek too, and I am very skeptical.
Joanna
>>