Fear this.
Posted on 12/01/2008 7:44:08 AM PST by Pelagius of Asturias
Fear this.
Hmmmm. HOPlophobia?
I used to use HOPpe’s #9 to CLEAN my guns.*
Coincidence? I think NOT!
;^)
* I say “used to” because I recently SOLD ALL MY GUNS. Leaving me with NO GUNS for the BATFE to ask me questions about... That’s right NO GUNS. None... at all...
Hopolophobia?
A fear of old black and white westerns?
(When the good guys were actually the good guys?)
Good one!
I suffer from Hypelophoboa.
The hoplos was the Greek hoplite’s shield, the most distinctive part of his armament, and perhaps the only part other than a spear affordable by the poorest members of the phalanx. The hoplites were “shieldmen.”
It seems odd to name a fear of guns after a defensive weapon.
Hey, thanks, Wayne. I just discovered that my house is "gun free" as well.
Got these here nifty gift certificates for 'em.
Going to buy me some environmentally-friendly and ethnically-diverse "Winter Solstace" gifts for the homeless people.
Yea, that's it.
Fear of Jump Ropes?
Which, as everyone here knows; handguns are fundamentally defensive weapons.
Good try, but no cigar.
Firearms are by definition an offensive weapon.
Their use in defense is based on the (accurate) assumption that the best defense is a good offense.
OTOH, I must agree that the handgun would not generally be the weapon of choice for an intelligent person when planning an attack.
It is defensive in that it is more likely to be readily available when defense is needed.
Likewise, all of my firearms are assault weapons, even my single shot guns.
So therefore Hoplophobia is correctly a fear of weapons in general, not just guns. Even today privates in the Greek army are called όπλιτεσ or (H)oplites (pronounced OH-plee-tess.
I don't know why the "H" is added in English. There is no letter H in Greek, nor is there an H sound. For instance, Hippopotamus in Greek is pronounced "ee-po-PO-ta-mos", a combination of the Greek words ippo meaning under and potamos meaning river
Firearms are tools. (period, end of sentence)
How those tools are used dictates the adjective.
Greek uses a diacritical marker (') at the beginning of a word to show rough breathing, as it is called. The phonetic segment [h] exists, however, there is no letter to represent it.
Words which begin with rho [r] also use this same marker. The sound complex is [hr].
Almost anything can be a weapon, most definitely including various parts of the human body.
However, some tools have been very precisely developed to be highly useful for damaging animals and other humans. As a short-hand way of expressing this trait, they are commonly referred to as weapons.
While guns are tools, few have much utility other than as weapons.
Weapons are force multipliers that allow the physically inferior to not be coerced by the physically superior.
IE, it’s a tool for social equality.
I don’t disagree.
Weapons are a sub-class of tools. As with all tools, they can be used for good or evil.
Actually, prior to the advent of easily used firearms, weapons provided little additional advantage to the physically inferior. A physically inferior person with a sword will generally die about as quickly up against a physically superior swordsman, as he would against the same guy with both of them unarmed.
Firearms changed this. As, to a lesser extent, did the longbow.
Obamaphobia...the fear of having a marxist, muslim, Kenyan, gun-grabbing, abortion-loving, black empowerment church attendin’ , America hatin’, panty waste wimp, as the usurper president with occupation of the White House set to start Jan 20, 2009. Hang on, it’s going to be a dangerous time for us all.
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