Thursday, January 11, 2007
Question
Should it be "materiel support", or "material support"? Materiel is like military hardware and supplies and stuff, whereas material is just stuff. So if you say, "Iran is providing materiXl support to our enemies", which materiXl should be used? Is "materiel support" the natural form of the phrase, but people use "material" just because it's a normaler word? Or is it just a coincidence that you can use "materiel" in a more generalized phrase while talking about military stuff?
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the correct phrasing is "Iran is providing STUFF to our enemies." and then let the big media sort it out.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can ascertain from the OED, materiel is always used in general terms for military supplies, and that is ALL it means. Material has multiple meanings, and one of those can be used as a synonym for materiel, but not in a very intelligent or scholarly way. I tried to provide the IPA so you could see that the words are pronounced differently, but it didn't work. Because the IPA is different, that usually means those are two distinct words. Although both words have the same Old French and Late Latin influences, the Latin seems to heavily influence the –al ending, whereas the –el ending is more influenced by the Old French. So, “Iran is providing materiel support to our enemies,” is the most correct statement, to answer your question.
ReplyDeleteI totally have a thing for etymology…Sorry.
Murf, you should know not to let the media sort out anything for us. That's worse than letting Bush sort out something...or letting him attempt an intelligent speech.
I'm sorry. Let me revise my earlier comment. The correct phrasing would be "Iran is DOING STUFF to THINGS." and then let the big media sort it all out. They will help us choose the next correct President, and inform us on whether global warming actually exists.
ReplyDeletemel's answer sounds somehow reasonable and researched, yet Murf's is much more comforting and easier to understand. I agree, let's just do away with materiXl altogether.
ReplyDelete...with this chicken and STUFF and lady so... -- the only thing I can think of.:)
ReplyDelete