Bushism
Encyclopedia
Malapropism
A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".-Etymology:...
s, and semantic or linguistic errors that have occurred in the public speaking of former President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and, much less notably, of his father, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. The term has become part of popular folklore and is the basis of a number of websites and published books. It is often used to caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
the two presidents. Common characteristics include malapropisms, the creation of neologisms, spoonerism
Spoonerism
A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
s, stunt word
Stunt word
A stunt word is a neologism created to produce a special effect, or to attract attention. Examples are gloatation, titterosity, santorum, scrumtrulescent, and truthiness. Some stunt words are portmanteau words....
s and grammatically incorrect subject-verb agreement
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
.
Discussion
Bush's use of the English language in formal and public speeches has spawned several books that document the statements. The first, Bushisms/President George Herbert Walker Bush in His Own Words, was released in 1992. A poem entitled "Make the Pie HigherRichard's Poor Almanac
Richard's Poor Almanac is a cartoon series by Richard Thompson which appears weekly in The Washington Post Style section. It began in 1997.-Make the Pie Higher:...
", composed entirely of Bushisms, was compiled by cartoonist Richard Thompson
Richard Thompson (cartoonist)
Richard C. Thompson is an illustrator and cartoonist best known for his syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac and the illustrated poem "Make the Pie Higher". He was given the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2011....
. Various public figures and humorists, such as Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
of The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
and Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
, creator of the comic strip Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
have popularized some more famous Bushisms, particularly those of George W. Bush.
Linguist Mark Liberman
Mark Liberman
Mark Liberman is an American linguist. He has a dual appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, as Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, and as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He is the founder and director of the Linguistic Data...
of Language Log
Language Log
Language Log is a collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman.The site is updated daily at the whims of the contributors, and most of the posts are on language use in the media and popular culture. Google search results are frequently used as a...
has suggested that Bush is not unusually error-prone in his speech, saying: "You can make any public figure sound like a boob, if you record everything he says and set hundreds of hostile observers to combing the transcripts for disfluencies, malapropisms, word formation errors and examples of non-standard pronunciation or usage... Which of us could stand up to a similar level of linguistic scrutiny?" Nearly a decade after George W. Bush said "misunderestimated" in a speech, Philip Hensher
Philip Hensher
Philip Michael Hensher FRSL is an English novelist, critic and journalist.Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School. He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending...
called the term one of his "most memorable additions to the language, and an incidentally expressive one: it may be that we rather needed a word for 'to underestimate by mistake'."
Journalist and pundit Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
published an essay in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
titled "Why Dubya Can't Read", writing:
General
- "They misunderestimated me." — Bentonville, Arkansas; November 6, 2000
- "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." — Saginaw, Michigan; September 29, 2000
- "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.'" — Nashville, Tennessee; September 17, 2002
- "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." — Poplar Bluff, Missouri; September 6, 2004
- "One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps." - CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo, October 24, 2006.
- "We can have filters on InternetsInternetsThe Internet is a worldwide publicly accessible system of interconnected computer networks.Where not capitalized, internet may refer to:* Any internetwork* A private network, referred to in RFC 1918 as "private internets"...
where public money is spent." – Third Gore-Bush presidential debate on October 17, 2000. - "I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened." (Announcing he would write a book about "the 12 toughest decisions"Decision PointsDecision Points is a memoir by former U.S. President George W. Bush. It was released on November 9, 2010, and the release was accompanied by national television appearances and a national tour. The book surpassed sales of two million copies less than two months after its release.-Content:Bush's...
he had to make.) - "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." (dreams take wing) —La Crosse, WisconsinLa Crosse, WisconsinLa Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The 2011 Census Bureau estimates the city had a population of 52,485...
, October 18, 2000
Spoonerisms
- "If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow." —January 2000
Foreign affairs
- "Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPECOPECOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
summit." — Addressing then-Australian Prime Minister John HowardJohn HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
at the APECAsia-Pacific Economic CooperationAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region...
Summit, September 7, 2007. (Neither the USA nor Australia are members of OPEC.)
Terrorism
- "I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best." - Washington, D.C., January 12, 2009
- "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Washington, D.C., August 5, 2004
Economics
- "There's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk—that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras—it got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments." — Speaking at a private fundraiser and surreptitiously recorded by a reporter with the footage subsequently leaked on various news outlets, Houston, Texas, July 18, 2008
- "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." - discussing the decline of the French economy with Tony Blair, 7 February 2002.
Education
- "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" — Florence, South Carolina; January 11, 2000
- "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." — On the No Child Left Behind ActNo Child Left Behind ActThe No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
, Washington, D.C.; September 26, 2007 - "Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling." —Washington, D.C.; January 23, 2004
See also
- Anguish LanguishAnguish LanguishAnguish Languish is an ersatz language constructed from English language words by Howard L. Chace in the book Anguish Languish. It is not really a language but rather a homophonic transformation created as a work of humor...
(examples of homophonic translationHomophonic translationHomophonic translation renders a text in one language into a near-homophonic text in another language, usually with no attempt to preserve the original meaning of the text. In one homophonic translation, for example, English "sat on a wall" is rendered as French "s'étonne aux Halles" 'is...
) - ColemanballsColemanballsColemanballs is a term coined by Private Eye magazine to describe verbal gaffes perpetrated by sports commentators. The word Colemanballs probably borrows from Colemans Meatballs, once familiar in the UK and sold by the company ColemanNatural...
(verbal gaffes by British sports commentators) - EggcornEggcornIn linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original, but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for...
(e.g. saying "old-timers' disease" instead of "Alzheimer's disease") - SpoonerismSpoonerismA spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
(e.g. "Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?") - Yogiism (Yogi BerraYogi BerraLawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
)
Further reading
- Frank, Justin A. Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (2004). ISBN 0-06-073670-4.
- Miller, Mark CrispinMark Crispin MillerMark Crispin Miller is professor of media studies at New York University, and the author of the book: Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform...
. The Bush Dyslexicon (2001). ISBN 0-393-04183-2. - Weisberg, JacobJacob WeisbergJacob Weisberg is an American political journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company. Weisberg is also a Newsweek columnist. He served as the editor of Slate magazine for six years, until stepping down in June 2008...
, ed. George W. Bushisms: The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of Our 43rd President. ISBN 0-7407-4456-9. - New RepublicThe New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
. Bushisms: President George Herbert Walker Bush in His Own Words (May 1992). ISBN 1563053187. - Sherman, B. Elwin. George W. Bush – On The Trips Of His Tongue – A Linguistic Legacy. ISBN 978-1430317951.
External links
- The Complete Bushisms by Jacob WeisbergJacob WeisbergJacob Weisberg is an American political journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company. Weisberg is also a Newsweek columnist. He served as the editor of Slate magazine for six years, until stepping down in June 2008...
- DubyaSpeak.com
- How To Talk Like Bush (And Why You Should Want To)
- About.com Bushisms collection
- About.com Top 50 Bushisms
- The Complete Bush Quotes by Est Nyboer