If you don’t bother to carefully research the definition for
a term that is outside your area of expertise, then you can look like a
mixed-up fool. That’s what Dr. John Livingston did in an article (blog post) at
the Gem State Patriot News on October 7, 2021 titled We’re being “alloyed.” His
first paragraph says:
“I see the word ‘alloyed’ being used in print and the
electronic and social media with increasing frequency. I have always known what
the word meant in the metallurgical sense, but when referring to a privilege or
a ‘right’ I had to look it up. It means according to Merriam’s ‘something added
that lowers value.’ Synonyms include the words—'adulterate, befouled and
corrupted’. I saw the word used both by Jason Riley and on Fox in the context
of the welfare state providing ‘an unalloyed good’. I like the usage in this
context. Welfare benefits are in fact an example of an ‘alloyed good’. The
value of the lives that such programs are applied to in the long term are
devalued and marginalized. The short-term gains—and we were always told that
these programs were to provide a bridge to being self-sufficient, have been
more than offset by the unintended economic consequences that are the result of
incentivizing behaviors that in the end fail to benefit individuals, families,
and societies at large.”
He didn’t really know what alloyed meant in a metallurgical
sense. (I definitely know since I am a retired metallurgist). Perhaps he looked
it up in an older Merriam Webster dictionary, like the 2004 new edition, that
only has the following two brief following definitions for alloy:
“[1] a substance composed of metals melted together; [2] an admixture
that lessens value.”
If he had looked for the noun at the Merriam-Webster web site he would
instead have found THREE definitions - where the first metallurgical one inspired
the third other he liked:
“[1] the degree of mixture with base metals: Fineness.
[2] a substance
composed of two or more metals or of a metal and a nonmetal intimately united usually
by being fused together and dissolving in each other when molten.
[3] an admixture that
lessens value or an impairing alien element.”
My copy of Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American
Language (College Edition 1962) has more detailed descriptions. They include
two different metallurgical senses, beginning with a negative one for precious
metals (which is the basis for lowering value), and a neutral, general one for
mixtures of any metals:
“Noun: 1] the relative purity of gold or silver. 2] a metal
that is a mixture of two or more metals or of a metal and something else. 3] a
less valuable metal mixed with a more valuable one, often to give hardness,
hence 4] something that lowers the value or goodness of another thing when
mixed with it. Verb: 1] to make (a metal) less valuable by mixing it with a
cheaper metal. 2] to mix (metals). 3] to debase by adding something inferior.”
How about the web site for the Oxford English Dictionary? It
has the following definitions for alloyed (as an adjective) and again begins
with one for precious metals:
“{1} Senses relating to metals:
[1] Of a precious metal: mixed with a less valuable metal in
order to lower its standard or quality without this being apparent, or to improve
its durability; (specifically) debased in this way.
[2] Of a metal: combined with another metal or (less
commonly) a non-metallic element so as to form an alloy.
{2} Figurative uses.
[3] Of a quality, feeling, experience, etc.: containing a
base or undesirable element; mixed, adulterated.”
Wikipedia has a good article on Fineness, which explains it
as follows:
“The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar,
jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of fine metal therein, in proportion to
the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy
metals are added to increase hardness and durability of coins and jewelry,
alter colors, decrease the cost per weight, or avoid the cost of high-purity
refinement. For example, copper is added to the precious metal silver to make a
more durable alloy for use in coins, housewares and jewelry. Coin silver, which
was used for making silver coins in the past, contains 90% silver and 10%
copper, by mass….”
Fineness for gold is described by karats (aka carats), where
pure gold is 24 karat. 18 karat is 75% gold. 14 karat gold, used for jewelry,
is harder and more durable, nominally 58–1/3% gold.
Dr. Livingston’s third paragraph begins with another
mixed-up claim that:
“Since twenty years after its’ founding the modern day
Democratic Party has been the party of racism, Jim Crow, grinding segregation—and
not just in the Southern states but places like Shaker Heights, Upper
Arlington, Bethesda, Beacon Hill Back Bay, Swarthmore, and Bryn Mayr.”
Republicans had switched racist places with the Democrats
after the civil rights bill passed in the 1960s, which is described in the
Wikipedia page on the modern Southern strategy by the Republican party.
His fourth paragraph misspells RINO as the animal RHINO, as
I have described previously in another blog post on August 9, 2021 titled Is
that a RHINO or a RINO?
The image of pouring aluminum came from the Library of
Congress.
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