LH--

It matters because there are centuries of culture distilled into that word, and centuries of another culture distilled into a people the word is now being used about, and because a great deal of the difficulty this thread is ABOUT lie in those centuries of very different cultures and the lack of understanding about one another.

A jihad, for example, is not a crusade. They have entirely different cultural referents, and when you use one of those words you bring up all the attached baggage that goes with that word. The baggage attached to each is different. And that is a good thing, not a thing to water down by making them appear to be interchangeable!

These are powerful tools, words. Say, didn't Dylan kinda depend on a certain way of using words? Does it matter that he wrote "Lay across my big brass bed" instead of "Kindly recline aslant my rather large knobby fourposter"? Do his songs have the same effect if you slap a lotta synonyms into them??? If you think so, then start reading the poltically-corrected version of fairly tales.

To deny the culturally evocative power of words at a site devoted to collecting lyrics is pretty silly, innit? I'm tired-- I'm going to bed!

~Susan