A.Word.A.Day--Manchurian candidate

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Jul 23, 2019

This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
solecism
Manchurian candidate

1st edition cover

Image: Wikimedia

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Manchurian candidate

PRONUNCIATION:

(man-CHOOR-ee-uhn KAN-di-det)

MEANING:

noun: A person, especially a politician, acting as a puppet of a foreign power.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the novel The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon. The term was popularized by a film (same title, 1962) based on the book. Manchuria is a region in the east between China and Russia. Earliest documented use: 1975.

USAGE:

“The Russians have succeeded with bringing down the US without firing a shot. We have the Manchurian candidate who has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.”
John Kostick Jr.; Letters; The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania); Apr 30, 2019.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and says you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set. -Raymond Thornton Chandler, writer (23 Jul 1888-1959)

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