Even the eighteenth century had its "socialists," but unlike those of the nineteenth, they paradoxically sought to make the world safe for "capitalists". The word "socialists" was first used in Northern Italy as a term of contempt for the political economists and legal reformers Pietro Verri and Cesare Beccaria, author of the epochal On Crimes and Punishments.
Points for style: American politicians should adopt "useless," more often heard here in reference to philandering husbands and remote controls, as a term of public contempt.
It has been used as a "strongly negative term of contempt for a black person since at least the 18th century," according to the Oxford English dictionary.
In early 20th-century Transylvania, "Caion" was adapted into a common noun and a term of contempt.
The Dardennes, however, are not "neoliberals" — the French term of contempt for free-marketeers, especially for former socialists who've undergone a sort of practical conversion.
The Dardennes, however, are not "neoliberals"—the French term of contempt for free-marketeers, especially for former socialists who've undergone a sort of practical conversion.
He also calls things dumb at a rate that would cause the average kindergarten teacher to take action: after "socialist," "stupid" may be his favorite term of contempt.
The tectonic plates keep pushing us, slowly, inexorably, in one direction or another -- either prolonging our adolescence unbearably (as if it's such a nice age to begin with, if you're living inside it) or writing us off as, to use the current Hollywood term of contempt, "grays".
Judge Johnson is hearing the criminal contempt case without a jury because the Justice Department has promised not to seek a term of more than six months in prison.
