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Mr.Card, today during english my friend said the word Genocide, which reminded me of Xenocide, so then we dicided to look up the word to see what the definition of it is. There is none, so Mr.Card, did you make up the word?
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I always thoguht xenocide was a word. I took it for granted, until you mentioned it here. However, neither dictionary.com or m-w.com (I don't have my dictionary handy at work) list it.
It reminds me of something he said in an article about Scrabble once: "Even if we might have made it up on the spot, if the meaning is instantly clear and the word sounds like it should exist we allow it."
Xenocide's meaning is instantly clear and it is constructed from two preexisting building blocks from the English language. I'm curious whether or not OSC coined it, or if it had been used before him, however. Whether or not the lexicographers agree, it's a word. Posts: 11 | Registered: May 2005
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Its quite commonly used in articles these days about the war in Iraq. Its become a commonly accepted use of the word, it just doesn't happen on earth much because anytime in our history it has been committed, the next year those people become ramen or framling from varlese and so instead of being killed as strangers, they are killed as common humans.
Posts: 84 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I've heard the word Xenocide in many places. None that I could name because I don't remember but in my opinion once a word becomes mainstream its an official word.
Posts: 832 | Registered: Jan 2005
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"Its quite commonly used in articles these days about the war in Iraq." I assume you're being serious. I guess I'll have to google it. Well, a google of xenocide and Iraq produced no links in which they occured in the same sentence on the first page. There were a lot of bloggers with xenocide in their handle talking about Iraq.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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i dont fully agree with that definition of xenocide.
"The act of a member of one species purposefully causing the extinction of another species.
If a man wiped out all mosquitos, he would have commited xenocide."
We have some concept of mosquitos because we lived with them for thousands of years. Ender wiped out the buggers not knowing their true nature there for it was xenocide.
Posts: 62 | Registered: May 2005
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xenocide includes the idea of a sentient species.
As far as I know, I coined the word. But since its meaning is obvious, once it catches on I doubt there'll be a footnote citing me wherever it appears <grin>.
Genocide: The attempt to eradicate, deliberately, a particular group of human beings.
Xenocide: The elimination of a species of nonhuman aliens.
But if the word is actually picked up in the language, it will mean exactly what the concensus makes it mean - like every other word in the language.
The word may be getting more usage now as more and more people who have read the Ender books move into positions of influence (i.e., graduate from high school). And it's no surprise at all for terminology and ideas from the Ender books to show up in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of operation. The books are widely read there.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I have no idea how to pronounce "Xenocide". It's a curse I have--I read a lot and experience tons of 2 dollar words, but have no idea how they are pronounced, so I don't ever want to use them in my vernacular.
Is it Zenocide, or X-enocide, or something different entirely? I remember a quote from My Big Fat Greek Wedding--"Echino with toast family" where the Xeno root is pronounced ch, and I give up.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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