Message-ID: <197617.1075858929012.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 21:02:13 -0700 (PDT) From: wsmith@wordsmith.org To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org Subject: A.Word.A.Day--spoliation Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Wordsmith @ENRON X-To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \SSCOTT5 (Non-Privileged)\Scott, Susan M.\Wordsmith X-Origin: Scott-S X-FileName: SSCOTT5 (Non-Privileged).pst spoliation (spo-lee-AY-shun) noun 1. The act of pillaging and plundering. 2. Seizure of neutral ships at sea in time of war. 3. The deliberate destruction or alteration of a document. [From Middle English, from Latin spoliation, past participle of spoliare, from spoil.] "For raids to have an effect, as the Allies quickly learned, they had to be directed not against specific industrial installations but against entire urban centers. The Allied attack on Hamburg in late July 1943 was typical of the kind of spoliation that could be achieved. Half the city's domiciles were destroyed, as were 60% of its water system, 75% of its electricity generation and 90% of its gas works. Forty thousand Germans perished." Gabriel Schoenfeld, The Strategy Behind All That Destruction, The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2000. This week's theme: words from war. ............................................................................ There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed. -Buddha Looking for a word or quotation previously featured in AWAD? They are all archived at http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives.html . For the theme list, see http://wordsmith.org/awad/themes.html . Alphabetical listing of the words is available at http://wordsmith.org/awad/wordlist.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/spoliation.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/spoliation.ram