Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’ve seen and heard the term peremptory used in place of preemptive lately, particularly in reference to the Iraq war, as in “peremptory war doctrine.” While Bush’s actions may have been peremptory in that he took decisive action before anyone could raise significant objections, the doctrine of war itself was preemptive (or preventative, depending on how far to the left of the aisle you are)
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Welcome to the Eggcorn Forum, commodore.
There has been debate among politicians, critics and scholars regarding the National Security Strategy of the United States (2002) and its “doctrine of preemption.” Some have argued that the US policy is actually one of prevention, rather than preemption. (See, for example, the film Preventive Warriors. http://www.preventivewarriors.com/theFilm.html)
While peremptory is stronger than preventive, I wonder if labeling the current strategy “peremptory war doctrine” is a political argument, rather than a lexical reshaping?
Rather than speculating, though, we should look at some actual examples.
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I’m inclined to believe that it’s an intentional—likely political—reshaping as nilep suggests. Eggcorns seldom involve sophisticated words replacing other sophisticated words. Malapropisms might, but eggcorns rarely do.
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