Sunday Rest: glasnost. Word Not To Use Today.

The word glasnost came into English when the Soviet Union was breaking up and Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of Russia.

It described a new direction for the country involving public frankness and public accountability. It encouraged Russian citizens to discuss the faults of their government, to criticise their leaders, and also to allow something approaching a free press.

Of course no one uses the word glasnost now because, as the new Russian government keeps telling us, the Russian leadership never does anything at all it might wish to keep secret, nearly all Russians are completely happy with their government, and the most free press in the world would have nothing to say that isn't already being said.

Glasnost...it's still a rather nice word, though. 

If a rather sad one.

Word Sadly Not To Use Today: glasnost. This word is the Russian for openness. For centuries it particularly referred to public court proceedings, but in the 1980s its meaning began to widen, and this wider meaning is how the word is now understood in the West.