[lit-ideas] Re: the third world
- From: Gregory {Greg} Downing <gd2@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 11:58:52 -0500 (EST)
reply below (and here's one way to trim a message when replying to it, for
those who don't know how) --=20
At 10:47 AM 11/7/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Thanks, Chris -- that actually does make some sense! Julie Krueger
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3DOriginal Message=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =20
>The term 'third world' originally was coined with reference to to the=20
>'non-aligned' nations (the 'first world' being the 'pluralistic-democratic'=
=20
>nations and the 'second world' referring to the 'communist' nations). The=
idea=20
>allied to the terminology (introduced at the Bandung Conference in 1955)=
was
>that the non-aligned 'third world' nations would form a 'third power'=20
>unaligned to the two powers then engaged in the developing 'Cold War'.
>
>Chris Bruce Kiel, Germany
>
This is an example of one of the reasons why I think a lot of the list
traffic here is phatic. The most basic questions, ones that can be answered
by anyone with access to a good dictionary or to the internet (I assume
every poster on this list falls into the latter category and just about
everyone into the former), get posted to hundreds of people. If I posted to
the list asking for example "what does 'demography' mean?" rather than
looking it up myself, would people think I was using a lit-ideas list and
its members' inboxes for the right reason?
Since JLS is away from his keyboard, I'll jump in with the OED, which
everyone knows is a good place to look for the earliest uses and possible
origin of a word or phrase. Here's the beginning of the entry:
Third World, third world, n. (and a.)
[tr. Fr. tiers monde.]
The countries of the world, esp. those of Africa and Asia, which are aligned
with neither the Communist nor the non-Communist bloc; hence, the
underdeveloped or poorer countries of the world, usu. those of Africa, Asia,
and Latin America. Cf. Second World s.v. second a. 7 a. Also attrib. or as
adj., and in extended use.
[1956 G. Balandier Tiers Monde 369 La conf=E9rence tenue =E0 Bandoeng en=
avril
1955, par les d=E9l=E9gu=E9s de vingt-neuf nations asiatiques et=
africaines...
manifeste l'acc=E8s, au premier plan de la sc=E8ne politique internationale,=
de
ces peuples qui constituent un 'Tiers Monde' entre les deux 'blocs', selon
l'expression d'A. Sauvy.]
This first usage cite is in parens because as a non-English quote it shows
the vector of the word into English. The cite after that (which I trimmed
for space reasons but can be looked up) is the first cite OED had found in
English by the 1980s (OED 2nd edition).=20
If people say they don't have, or don't know whether they have, easy access
to OED, there's always the internet, which is where a lot of language
discussion goes on now. A search of the archive of the American Dialect
Society's email list (search google for "American Dialect Society" and from
their homepage look for the ADS-L link and the ADS-L archive link) shows
that Fred Shapiro, a Yale librarian who publishes on the history of words
and phrases, posted an antedating in English to OED2's first English cite of
"third world" and "second world" 17 Oct 2003 19:41:48; he was reposting
content from the alt.usage.english usenet board (another place to find info
on English phrases; newsgroups are easily searched through google), while
cc'ing the North American editor of OED3.
Greg Downing
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