Bons Mots: Eviscerate
Eviscerated Shells
In all the Proposition 8 petitions from the side of the angels for marriage equality, I noticed a word crop up again and again about what the proposition would do if allowed as an amendment: eviscerate.
Now, it appears, that the Fund people who put through the last version of the law but were only helpers for Propositon 8 (and thus not recognized for the court’s purposes for being parties in the lawsuits), are also using the word.
So here it is, per Merrium Webster:
1 a: to take out the entrails of : disembowel b: to deprive of vital content or force2: to remove an organ from (a patient) or the contents of (an organ)intransitive verb: to protrude through a surgical incision or suffer protrusion of a part through an incision
— evis·cer·a·tion\-?vi-s?-?r?-sh?n\ noun
Somehow, I’d prefer that Proposition 8 removes rights, or dismantles them or even deletes them. Evisceration seems a bit bloody.
This kind of word choice reminds me of my high school days in the Model United Nations Club. One year I went to a conference and kids playing the part of France had to speak on every topic. They would preface every statement with “the peace loving nation of France” because, apparently, that’s what the diplomants from France would say. When they didn’t like a resolution, again, following the real life patterns, they’d pronounce everything “repugnant” — even if they ended up abstaining from a vote.
[Image by twinsparc via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.]
