[extropy-chat] Re: Gullible

[Acy James Stapp]

A fascinating story, but this is probably the oldest etymological joke
known to man. Perhaps I'm just failing to find it humorous. Anyway,
because I find etymology quite interesting, here is the etymology back
to the 14th century, from a great site http://www.etymonline.com/

gullible 
1793 (implied in gullibility), earlier cullibility (1728), probably
connected to gull, a cant term for "dupe, sucker" (1594), which is of
uncertain origin. It is perhaps from the bird (see gull (n.)), or from
verb gull "to swallow" (1530, from O.Fr. goule, from L. gula "throat,"
see gullet); in either case with a sense of "someone who will swallow
anything thrown at him." Another possibility is M.E. dial. gull "newly
hatched bird" (1382), which is perhaps from O.N. golr "yellow," from the
hue of its down.

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of scerir
Sent: Tuesday, 19 October, 2004 15:21
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Re: Gullible


> The word 'gullible' was removed from the 
> official English dictionary about a year ago. 
> I don't remember what it has been replaced with.
> ben

['Spookster' wrote recently ...]

I logged onto globalnews.com today to check up on world 
events and see if anything interesting had happened 
to the human race, and 'lo and behold it seems that 
Oxford University Press (And several other publishing 
companies) are being forced to remove a word from their 
dictionaries. 

The word in question is 'Gullible'. 

The reasons behind it's attempted removal from the English 
language are complicated but I'll try to explain them in 
brief here. 

It all started in Africa. 

Prior to the 19th century, the rest of the world knew very 
little about this continent. Any trade between Europeans 
and African traders occurred on the coast. However, 
beginning in the early 1800s, explorers began to explore 
the African interior. Many of the first European explorers 
in Africa were missionaries who felt called to 'bring God 
into the lives of the pagan African tribes'. 

In the late 19th century the 'scramble' began - this was 
the major European colonization of Africa. Seven nations 
in total would vie for supremacy of as much of the continent 
as possible. Of the seven European countries that would 
eventually dominate Africa, Great Britain, France and Belgium 
together controlled most of Africa's territory. 

This is where the Guleb tribe enters the picture. 

The Guleb Tribe were a reasonably large community who 
lived peacefully in the country we know nowadays as 
the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). 

Then came the French. 

As Africa was 'civilized' the tribes were gradually 
deprived of their ancestral lands. This was no different 
for the Guleb tribe except for the fact that they were 
exploited out of almost everything they had. 

What happened was that when the French settlers arrived 
at the Ivory Coast they wanted the most fertile land. 
A large amount of this happened to be along the western 
edge of the "Lac de Buyo" which was the lake the Guleb 
tribe had settled around. 

The tribe was incredibly hospitable and open to the 
new settlers. They willingly offered to share their land, 
food and other resources with these strange, pale people. 

And the French took complete advantage of them. 

The next thing the Guleb knew they were dispossed 
of their lands, crops and other material possessions. 
What made it worse was that the settlers managed 
to deceive the tribesmen so completely and then 
boasted about how easily they had robbed the natives 
of their land while the other European nations were 
having so much trouble exploiting their own 'savages'. 

This led to the name Guleb being used to describe 
anyone who was easily deceived or tricked. 

The use of the term eventually made it's way 
to Europe where it was corrupted into 'Gullib' 
or 'Gullible'. 

Recently a small group of descendents from the Guleb 
tribe have been trying to regain their tribal lands 
from the government of the Ivory Coast. 

Unfortunately they've met with almost no success. 

At the same time they've also discovered how their 
ancestral name has been turned into a derogatory term 
in the English language. As a result they are campaigning 
to try and get the word removed in it's current form 
from the English language. The biggest purveyor (For want 
of a better word) of the English language are dictionaries, 
so that's what they concentrated on. 

This attempt has been taken as a joke up till now when 
the descendents have appealed directly to the British 
Government and the British Publishing Associations Board. 
Fearing a public relations upset the BPAB has forced the 
Oxford University Press along with several other publishing 
companies to remove the word or at least annotate the entry 
in their next edition of dictionaries to explain the history 
behind the term. 

Now, I personally agree that the Guleb Tribes-people should 
regain their land and receive reparations from the Ivory Coast 
government for their losses, but trying to change a language 
seems kinda stupid. 

Yes, it is politically incorrect and offensive to the Guleb 
Tribe to use the word. 

But does it really need to be removed? 

-Spookster 


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