'kowtow' is a correct and usable word in written English
It means to approach someone subserviently, as in bowing very low or prostrate on the ground as a sign of submission or respect. For example, "The humble visitor made a low kowtow to the Emperor to show his respect."
He said WPP's media buying arm Group M has so much UK market power that it is "very difficult" to resist being forced to kowtow to demands linked to other areas of Sorrell's empire.
I am not arguing about whether he had the right policies, strategies or charisma, but he was the elected leader of the party who faced incredible onslaughts and caricature in the media following his refusal to kowtow to media moguls.
Forced to bow his head in the ritual kowtow, he kept trying to raise it.
The apology in Beijing was not a kowtow to the Chinese, it said, but merely an elaboration of the apology it had already made to consumers all over the world.Mr Debrowski had not intended to talk to Mr Changjiang in the presence of journalists, but Chinese officials made it a condition for the meeting.
Among the many hundreds of Jewish officers and reservists murdered was Baruch Steinberg, the chief rabbi of the Polish army.Poles may sense a sell-out: Mr Putin's language at Gdansk last year fell short of the kowtow that some desire; it may be the same at Katyn.
That is because independent directors tend to be selected by the CEO, so they also kowtow to high-ranking executives.
So those discussions hit a wall, and they withdrew two aircraft".Budapest's refusal to kowtow to Ryanair in part reflected its reservations about the legality of such agreements.
Incidentally, I have reverted to Peking after being told by a Chinese acquaintance that my pronunciation of Beijing is no closer to the Chinese original.T.W. JohnstonGreat Bookham, SurreySIR – Why do you complain that English-speakers "are expected to kowtow to name-changer's whims" more so than other language speakers?
A recent speech by Radek Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, in which he requested the Lithuanians not to pass the education law, may have had the opposite effect: swinging some lawmakers into voting for it in order to show that they will not kowtow to pressure from Warsaw.
We borrow verbs (kowtow) and nouns (tsunami) and exclamations (banzai!, oy!).
The new Islamist mainstream, which includes Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Tunisia's Nahda party, has evolved over the years, and now realises that the dominant new generation of young Arabs using Facebook and YouTube will never kowtow to the anachronistic sort of imam who once seemed to hold sway in the Islamist camp.
