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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2009-04-19 20:23:13

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

"Holigarchy" for oligarchy

The prefix oligo comes from Greek, and signifies few, small, little, poor, as in the few-bristled earthworm, or oligochaete. Combined with the root for “to rule” we get oligarchy, or rule by the few. Given the obscurity of the derivation for most people, it is not surprising that oligarchy has been reshaped into something perceptually more satisfying – a holigarchy. The connection to holy fits the bill nicely. “Holy” comes from Proto-Germanic1 and implies whole, that which cannot be divided or transgressed. So a holigarchy can be a sacrosanct group of untouchable rulers, especially if they are non-secular, or strongly united.

Fantasy fiction chat room:
The matter, in my opinion, is in the fact that the pope is just a man, elected by a restricted holigarchy
(http://tgs.gargoyles-fans.org/cr/archiv … -2002.html)

Cultural criticism
To go back to the Ancient Greece comparison Todd loves so much, each military triumph of Sparta or Athens engendered an expansion of holigarchy or democracy.
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-rev … centReview)

Social criticism: the Dred Scott case!:
Our constitutional government has been supplanted by a judicial holigarchy.
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=IeZKurp … #PPA469,M1)

All my post were actually trying to tell you, is that in a Democracy you should read all the document yourself and make your own mind, rather than asking others do the job for you. Thats holigarchy.
(http://www.golemlabs.com/community/show … 218&page=2)

If we had, say, 5 heads deciding among them, they would either fight all the way before coming to a decision, or they would cohalize, as it often happened in history, and form a holigarchy.
(http://p218.ezboard.com/ftvforum36010fr … =1&stop=20)

Campaign to “expose UCLA’s most radical professors”:
Only dim witted morons like you have a need to believe in a messiah like bush, dyslectic, corrupt and even more stupid than the holigarchy which controls him.
(http://www.uclaprofs.com/articles/completehatemail.html)

[1] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=holy

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#2 2009-04-19 23:33:39

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2872

Re: "Holigarchy" for oligarchy

A classic. I don’t know if anyone else is benefitting from the UQAM strike, but we certainly are.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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