Opinionista and opinion meister are two recent neologisms from the print media. Opinion comes from the Latin root opinari, which means to think, believe. The former follows the form of the Italian-borrowed barista; dispensing opinion. Meister is a person skilled or prominent in an activity. In German, it means master. Meistersinger referred to a member of one of the guilds of German lyric poets and musicians that flourished around the seventeenth century. These guilds were famous for their elaborate techniques. This context makes clear the talent and perfection expected from a meister; an opinionmeister’s opinion would obviously be highly valued.

Gung-ho, the unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps is an abbreviation for the Mandarin Gongye Hezhoushe, or industrial cooperative. The term took birth in China in 1938, to refer to the small, industrial operations that were being established in rural China to replace the Japanese-captured industrial centres. The phrase was clipped to the selected characters of the two words to become gung-ho. Gung-ho came to mean ‘work together’ and became a slogan for the industrial cooperative movement. Lt Col Evans Carlson, US Marine Corps, a military attach`E9 in the US embassy to China in the late 1930s, was favourably impressed by the industrial cooperatives. When the US entered World War II, Carlson was appointed commander of the Second Marine Raider Battalion. Carlson chose gung-ho as the motto for his elite battalion and this became an expression of spirit and ‘can do’ attitude. Gung-ho is also an adjective that means ‘unthinkingly enthusiastic and eager, especially about taking part in fighting or warfare’.

The 1946 Ground Zero referred to the point on the earth’s surface at or directly below a nuclear detonation. The outdoor cafe at the Pentagon was jocularly labelled Ground Zero during the Cold War. Coming back to square one is ‘back to ground zero’. The centre of any calamity or struggle is also ground zero. September 11, 2001 onwards, Ground Zero is almost a proper noun, combining the twin senses of a bombsite and the centre of a calamity.

This feature was published on May 22, 2004