[Sca-cooks] candy and hostages

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 3, 2006, at 12:09 PM, Kathleen A Roberts wrote:

> On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:58:31 -0400
>   "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
> <adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> But in general, the word "hostage" has its roots in the
>> word "host",
>> and it didn't have quite the same high-stress and
>> terrifyingly brutal
>> connotation that it has had more recently.
>
> thanks for the great explanation. i think fostering is
> more what folks today might compare it to?  the idea of
> switching offspring to keep everyone on good terms.
>
> given the fact that the dictionary i checked did not get
> into the 'gentler' definition, i guess that premise has
> gone out of style.

I believe that the automatic association our culture seems to make  
between "hostages" and "terrorism" is generally a pretty recent  
concept. As in, to the virtual exclusion of other definitions, maybe  
40 years old or less.

Adamantius