Word of the Week: Trump calls tariffs 'the most beautiful word.' Here's its history
text.npr.org

Tariffs are President Trump’s favorite word. That’s not an exaggeration.

“I always say ‘tariffs’ is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary,” he said at a rally just hours after his inauguration in January. “Because tariffs are going to make us rich as hell. It’s going to bring our country’s businesses back that left us.”

  • huppakee@lemm.eeEnglish
    121·
    23 days ago

    Good article, some very interesting facts.

    "The word [tariff] can be traced back to Latin as well as the Arabic word “taʽrīf,” meaning “notification” or “inventory.”

    […]

    “Even words that were traced back to Old English eventually come from Proto-Indo-European,” he explains. “So all language is imported, in that sense.”

    But no mention of whether there were any tariffs imposed on importing the word, so that’s curious. Fake news or wokism? I wonder.

    • kbal@fedia.io
      11·
      23 days ago

      “wokism” — now there’s a good clean beautiful American-made word.