Sunday Rest: murdabad. Word Not To Use Today.

This sounds like something really terrible, doesn't it? Murdabad?

And it can be.

You might see this word on a placard in a demonstration in India or Pakistan, and it conveys its meaning, down with, powerfully. 

Now we can all, I should imagine, have some sympathy with an occasional need to shout DOWN WITH TEACHERS! or DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT!

But associating them with the word bad is something about which we should perhaps be careful.

And letting something that sounds like murder get anywhere near the argument is, I fear, a recipe for pure disaster.

Word Not To Use Today: murdabad. This word is Urdu, and can also mean DEATH TO. It comes from the Persian murda, which means dead.

Having said all that, sometimes you can feel nothing but breathless admiration for people's sheer courage:


photo by Shabiha

(Zindabad means LONG LIVE.)