June 16, 2012
This was published originally on May 2 for something personal that I will describe, and to get feedback on my hunch that the Liberal readers of the Dailykos blog , those who identify with the "workers of the world" would predominantly believe one of two meanings of this phrase. The poll is closed and you can see the result at the end of the essay
The term "Hoi Polloi" is spoken like Hoy'' Pi loy' or in International Phonetic Alphabet ˌhɔɪ pɒˈlɔɪ Here it is in a sentence: "That joke didn't work for me; it must have been written for the Hoi Polloi"
Usually when I'm uncertain about a meaning of a word, especially if it's in an essay, I do a quick google to see whether I had it right. But in conversation we are usually less careful. About five years ago I wrote a diary on this site that I called Factoidword, complete with a (c) meaning I own it, but I gave full permission to general use. I needn't have worried, as a search a few minutes ago of FactoidWord, had my essay as the number two, but all of the others had them as compound word, It's a short diary (essay) and goes into the these factoidwords that I defined as: noun- a word with two current meanings that are contradictory and not readily discernible by context. Here's the link to that essay, incorporated in this one, so I won't repeat it here.
Hoi Polloi is thus a factoidword, but unlike other such words it's ambiguity is not described by most dictionaries. Merriam-Webster defines it simply as: the general populace : masses. Macmillan Dictionary adds an important element: an insulting word for ordinary people who are not rich or well educated Oxford English Dictionary confirms that it is derogatory. Since all dictionaries describe it's origin as mid 17th century BC: Greek, literally 'the many' there is no doubt that this once was its singular meaning. Wikipedia, among its many valuable functions has become an encyclopedic dictionary, with this major article on this word. Within the depths of the article there is allusions to its conflicting two opposite meanings, but not in the formal dictionary section which gives the same singular meaning of the other three dictionaries cited.
This has a special importance to me, as only a few days ago this term was used in it's dictionary definition by my sister with whom we were staying for a week, as I visited my very elderly Aunt. My sister, (I'll call her Rena) is a witty intelligent person, with tons of friends and a large extended family. She is just a few years older than I, but was more outgoing and smarter, so she handled our childhood setting, among the lower segments of the classic Hoi Polloi in a way that I could not. She, read intensely even as child, and submerged herself in an elegant world of other times and places, which became who she was. She, in some way knew it was a act-she was also a terrific actress-an eventually somewhat identified with the aristocracy that she read about-knowing it was sort of a joke.
So it happened that she became someone who would see the Hoi Polloi as people to be avoided, dismissed as unworthy while I, alas, welcomed immersing myself in this society of easy acceptance of not only where I came from, but what I still am. It was the day before our week long stay was to end, we were leaving early the next day, and talking after an elegant dinner that she prepared. The visit had had it's tense moments, but also the few hours of private conversation where I could say to her about what I'm writing here. We may be living in different worlds but we are still those children who when one came under attack, from a parent or another kid, bonded in mutual defense and affection. And then, because of the use of this single phrase, the moment, perhaps the last extended visit we would ever have, was gone.
I noticed her usage and hesitated for a second, and then gently mentioned that I thought she had misused it, giving my understanding that it meant not the poor but the rich. It happened that my opinion was echoed by her husband and my wife. She smiled knowingly, and stated that her interpretation of the Greek word, which she described, was correct, and we were all wrong. Now, getting steamed, the good feelings out the window, we went to the source, looking up the word on my wife's Iphone, and one dictionary after another confirmed her position. End of debate? Not by a long shot.
Since two major dictionaries acknowledge that an individual who is described as being of this group has been denigrated, if Rena was correct, her use of the term for the masses meant that I, who plays tennis on public courts and lives in a working class neighborhood, is also looked down upon. So finding the definition of the word became important. Feeling then, and confirmed now that it represented an invidious description, meant that not only that she felt this way about me, but the erudite people who write dictionary definitions, in my mind at least, somehow reinforced her evaluation. And to cap off her message of her superiority, she responded to the evident ambiguity of the term among those present with, "words are words no matter what people think it is," so her certainty of dictionary authority reinforced the denigration of those who don't know this, her Hoi Poloi, the masses, me.
But my dear sister was wrong. The writers of dictionaries are wrong, and even my revered Wikipedia is wrong.....or at least I thought so. As I expanded on in my previous essay, Factoidwords, American dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. And that's why I wanted the readers of this website to respond to my poll. As this will become data for Wikipedia and for dictionaries to include the contrary second definition of this term. It will not take a majority, only a non insignificant minority for it to be a secondary definition.
While the online dictionaries only cite the Greek meaning, I recently located a literary blog"laudatortemporisacti" that had explored this same subject. It turns out there is more authoritative documentation of this reverse meaning than I had known originally.
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According to Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage, some people use hoi polloi to mean "the snobby elite," a sense which is almost directly opposed to the term's original meaning, It goes on to say that while this usage rarely occurs in print "it appears, however, that this sense of hoi polloi is extremely common in speech."
The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, 3rd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), p. 363: also acknowledges the contrary meaning:
By an overturning of the true sense, hoi polloi has, since the 1950s, come to be used in parts of America, to mean 'high society, the upper crust'. Substantial evidence of this unwelcome use is presented in vol. ii (1991) of DARE: e.g. How can a night-club comedian go on Broadway? ... I'm a street corner character, and Broadway audiences have a hoi-polloi attitude—New Yorker, 1988. And not only in America it would seem: e.g. I know our Terry's much too grand for the likes of us nowadays—too busy consorting with the hoi polloi at all those literary soirées—S. Mackay, 1992.
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Right now, including those at the dinner discussion, I have asked a few dozen people, all well educated with college or advanced degrees. Almost all said that the term meant the rich, and more specifically, the rich who were arrogant, insensitive and supercilious....in other words the caricatures of the wealthy that appeared in this "Three Stooges"
short movie with the very same title. . (Even after watching it, the final scene leaves the meaning of the term ambiguous) The other person who said it meant the masses, happened to have taken classical Greek as part of his seminary work where he learned the word in its original singular meaning. He was the exception to the principle I am advancing, and I hope others who learned of the word in an academic setting would mention it in a comment.
Now for the theoretical hypotheses that will be tested by this poll that you all have taken. The vast bulk of our vocabulary is not formally learned in school, but is absorbed by hearing or reading other people's use. As children we know the names of objects by proximity to the words; and later on, words for concepts become meaningful by usage, What I am proposing is that usage is augmented by affect, by attitude of the speaker, most clearly illustrated in this word, but most likely other politically loaded word-which now are a major part of our vocabulary. Most of our interpersonal associations are within broad socio-economic strata, especially in our formative years. So, if one is among the privileged, the wealthy, using a strange word with a subtle derogatory tone to denote a group would be construed that it is not "us" but "them." In my sentence in the beginning of this essay, the identity of the group that didn't get the joke, those who were not with it, or clever enough, who were described by a previously unknown term, would be seen as not among the speakers group. So, if it were spoken by one of the elite, Hoi Polloi would be seen as referring to the uneducated poor; while if the term were first spoken or heard by one the masses, those who don't get the jokes would be the "out of touch" rich. The linked Wikipedia article on this word illustrate mass media examples of this very process.
Thankfully, the anger that I felt at my sister's use of the word was dissipated by the next morning, but the depth of my feelings prompted exploration of why I reacted so strongly, both personally and lexicographically, leading to this essay. The anger I felt was not unique to the situation described here; although not reflected in any traditional dictionary, but in a website called Urban Dictionary, which accepts anonymous definitions that convey better than any other source the emotional content of words, at least among those who go on those sites. I wont repeat the entry for Hoy Polloi as it is vicious towards those who use it to describe the lower classes, but for those who are interested it is described here.
Language and it's elements, words, are more than what is conveyed in dictionaries, each having its own emotional coloration. In the absence of face to face conversation, words do the work of tone of voice and visual expression that modify our language in real time. Those of us who write for public consumption have been reminded of this when our message is misconstrued from what was intended. The compound word Hoi Polloi happens to be a perfect example of this effect.
Addendum:
I recently asked another person, Ruth, whom I had known casually for a half dozen years. She is charming, outgoing and friendly, but we had never had any in depth discussions, and then I asked her the question of the meaning of the phrase. She responded with animation, "It's the rich, the snooty types." This opened up a long discussion where I probed her background to test my hypothesis. She was Jewish, like me, but with a difference. Unlike the vast majority of Jews who emigrated around the turn of the century who were from the Ghettos-- uneducated, oppressed and trying to survive, her lineage included a rare women, her Grandmother who was a Talmudic scholar whose husband was a wealthy industrialist. She remembered the stories of their escaping the Bolsheviks with diamonds sewn into their coats.
But if my theory is to be salvaged it is her from other Grandmother, the one whom she absolutely loved, who was a Shtetl Jew. Ruth is not only educated, charming and financially successful, she produced plays for international audiences, and lived what most people consider a successful life. Yet, she knew....not guessed, that Hoi Polloi was those who would still not invite her wealthy ancestors to events for Christian aristocrats.
While this entire project of this essay may be an over reaction to a personal slight, it has become more. It has opened up discussions with different people that I would not otherwise have broached about who they are, how they view the world, who are the people they see are to be ridiculed. There is the academic element, well expressed in the blog on Hoi Polloi etymology that I recently discovered that well describes the two view, that of my own sister and of me as representatives of more than sociological class but of ways of dealing with life.
If anyone happens to read this and wants to continue the dialogue, drop me a line as I can be found by searching my name below.
Al Rodbell
Encinitas CA