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Kel Richards'
Ozwords

Kel Richards' OzwordsKel Richards' OzwordsKel Richards' Ozwords

The Ozword of the Day: "De-escalate"

Is ‘de-escalate’ in the running to be the Word of the Year for 2025? 

Or (as seems more likely) the Non-Word of 2025?  

It was the initial reaction from Penny Wong and Athony Albanese to Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran into a cease fire. 

While the rest of the world applauded the bold strategy, and successful mission, that decisively took Iran out of the nuclear club, all Wong and Albanese could bring themselves to say was ‘de-escalate.’ 

Even when, 24 hours later, they were dragged kicking screaming into facing reality they supported Trump’s decision and the precision bombing by the US Airforce—then almost immediately switched back to their bleated refrain of ‘de-escalate.’ 

Their plaintive cry was often expanded to include such words and ‘dialogue’ and ‘diplomacy.’ 

They seem to have forgotten that the first leader to try using ‘dialogue’ and ‘diplomacy’ to make the Iranians ‘de-escalate’ their goal of building nuclear weapons was Bill Clinton in 1995. 

Thirty years ago! 

That’s a lot of ‘dialogue and diplomacy.’ 

But Wong and Albanese seem to think that just a little bit more time (another 30 years?) might see the same thing work that failed in the past. 

It’s a bit hard to see how a waggling finger accompanied by a firm pronouncement of the word ‘de-escalate’ might work better in 2025 than 1995. 

The word ‘escalation’ has meant ‘the act or process of increasing armaments’ (Oxford) since at least 1938. 

This whole word family began in America in 1900, originally as a tradename for a moving staircase. 

The world’s first escalator was built by the Otis Elevator Company for passengers using the New York ‘L’ – or the Manhattan Elevated Railway to give it it’s proper name. 

The noun ‘escalator’ gave rise to the verb ‘to escalate’ meaning ‘to move upwards.’ 

This, in turn, gave rise to all the applications of the abstract noun ‘escalation.’ 

And finally, in 1965, to it opposite ‘de-escalate’ (for those getting nervous about the ride and wanting to get off). 

But it turns out that bunker-buster ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ can make the Ayatollahs more included to leap off the escalator than yet another burst of feeble finger waggling from Canberra.


Important notice: As you can see, I am back at my keyboard and back on deck. My thanks to the countless numbers of people who have offered their best wishes and their prayers for my recovery. Greatly appreciated! There are far too many of you to thank personally, so please accept this as my personal thanks to you. The surgery went well, and now follows a lot of hard work with the physiotherapist to make the recovery complete. While I am doing that, my plan is to keep up this service every day. Let’s see how we go.


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BY THE WAY...


The latest edition of Quadrant magazine is now in the newsagents -- including my article on 'Recognizing Racism".


The May-June issue of Australian Geographic is out now (with the tree frog on the cover) -- inside are my two small columns on 'Placenames' and 'Ozwords'.


If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic


The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.


BOOKS:


* My latest book is -- "Defending the Gospel" (second, fully revised, edition). You can find it here:  Defending the Gospel – matthiasmedia.com.au 


* If you're looking for my recent book "Flash Jim" you'll find it here --  Flash Jim, The astonis

hing story of the convict fraudster who wrote Australia's first dictionary by Kel Richards | 9781460759769 | Booktopia 


* You can find all Kel's books currently in print here --  Booktopia Search Results for 'kel richards'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.  

 

* And also here --   Amazon.com.au : Kel Richards 


* And you'll find more here --  Search: 4 results found for "Kel Richards" – matthiasmedia.com.au 


* Many of Kel's out of print books can be found at ABE Books --  Kel Richards - AbeBooks explaining words explain the term

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THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE

Kel Richards has been reporting on the Australian language for more than 30 years, and is the author of ten books about words and language. He has been described in one newspaper article as "the wordsmith to the nation." Kel is a veteran Australian author, journalist and broadcaster. In a long and distinguished career he has hosted ABC radio's flagship daily current affairs show "AM" and his own talkback shows on commercial radio. For 12 years Kel wrote and presented the popular daily feature "Word Watch" on ABC NewsRadio. For several years Kel was a member of the Standing Committee on Spoken English (SCOSE) at the ABC. Kel presents the weekly "Words Matter" segment on Peta Credlin's program on Sky News, he writes the "Language" column for The Spectator Australia and the "Ozwords" and "Placenames" columns for Australian Geographic. Kel joins John Stanley on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Nine Radio Network each week for "The Word Clinic."

Ozwords appears in every issue of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC.

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