5th column

One nice thing about a personal blog is that I can vent my spleen without embarrassing any larger institution or affiliation.

So I feel free, for example, to call Ambassador Ruddy a sputtering idiot.

Anu Garg, the editor of A Word A Day at Wordsmith.org, is far more diplomatic ... and clever:

From: Frank Ruddy
Subject: fifth column

Your definition of a fifth column as traitors is outrageous. But for General Mola and other officers of Francisco Franco, Spain would have become another Rumania. Did you ever see the pictures of nuns driven through the streets naked by the Republican government? Are you aware of the theft and transfer to Russia of the Spanish treasury? Read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia to get some idea of the murderous tactics of the Stalinist forces in Spain aiding the Republican government. Orwell, after all, was no right winger. The fifth column in Spain were patriots who successfully kept Spain from going Communist. There were heroes. You should be ashamed of maligning them as traitors.

Frank Ruddy, U.S. ambassador (ret.)

Language doesn't always follow fact or logic. John Duns Scotus, after whom the word dunce is coined, was no dull-witted ignoramus. The French, after whom the term French leave is coined, are no more prone to leaving without notice than the rest of us. The list is endless.

The term "fifth column" is in the dictionaries, and to try to change the definition you'd need a fifth column in the editorial offices of their publishers.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)