From Boston I'm Marco Werman and this is Boston calling from the b.b.c. It's a program that puts a global perspective on the American experience great to be with you as it always is this week it's all words from the pre-computer origins of the word hack it was used to refer to an ordinary horse that could get hired out with a horse and carriage to how you say Donald Trump in American Sign Language Now some people I think take issue with that name sign because having a killer isn't necessarily seen as positive to the 1st people in history to be called refugees in a way the clue is in the word itself it has a French origin ahead the stories behind the words in the headlines will start with the phrase and I'm sure will be familiar to you America 1st President Trump used it a lot during his campaign it was widely interpreted to signal his support for isolationist non interventionist policies but this week the president is embarking on his 1st foreign trip with stops in the Middle East and Europe during a news conference about his I 10 or ery president trumps national security advisor h r McMaster cast the phrase America 1st in a slightly different light President Trump understand sort of work of 1st does not mean America alone to the contrary prioritizing American interests means strengthening alliances and partnerships that help us extend our influence and improve the security of the American people this interpretation makes sense to Larry Ferraro at least from a historical perspective he's the author of a book called brothers at arms all about the international help that America depended on to win its independence how do you understand the phrase America 1st what does it mean to you America 1st American greatness American exceptionalism these are all phrases that have come to mean the idea of drawing up the Bridge separating America from the world when in fact the original phrases meant something completely different American exceptionalism for. For example originally the idea was that the United States would be an example to the world American greatness was another concept that actually had its foundations in $776.00 not long after the Declaration of Independence Well what was the actual use of American greatness in $776.00 a reverend of the time Timothy Dwight a valedictorian dressed at Yale spoke about the foundations of American greatness as Americans not acting as inhabitants of a small village but rather citizens of the world all of these concepts at the time they began meant an American engagement with the world not an American disengagement or the pulling up of the drawbridge and excluding all from its doors so I really want to know when that changed but let's let's go back to the Revolutionary War because you argue that America has never been free of foreign cooperation or entanglements all the way back to the revolution So remind us what was going on that just as those phrases were changed to a completely different meaning from their origin the idea that America started out as an exceptional nation fighting the British on its own and achieving independence by itself was never correct and never a good fit in fact the American nation could never have won independence without the help of the alliances that it had with other nations specifically France and Spain and by the immigrants who came to fight for it and yet we're mostly taught in school that America wanted freedom on its own maybe there's that little side bar in the chapter there on the French and Marquis de Lafayette but you're saying that history has been wrong. During the 19th century when we had a manifest destiny mindset the idea that somehow the Americans could have been helped by anyone other than themselves started to be pushed to the side the idea of Manifest Destiny American exceptionalism at the time was very nationalistic Yes the history included people like Lafayette but he was just there to help out and you didn't see anyone else except at the very end when General Rochambeau came to assist at Yorktown in fact France and Spain were helping the American nation right from the beginning before in fact it was even a nation the Constitution has parts that are dated and need evolving don't these phrases like America 1st and American exceptionalism but should we give them a break too and let them evolve as well. I agree but I think their evolution needs to return to their roots we've been an exceptional nation for very long time not because we stand head and shoulders above every other nation in in our character or in our temperament but rather because from the beginning we've been a nation that has both look to its alliances and look to the people who come from those nations that we engage with to help build and strengthen us Laurie Ferraro author of brothers at arms about the international help that America depended on to achieve its independence from Britain Larry great to meet you thank you for your time it's been a pleasure thank you ever since President Trump assumed office if not before a lot of negative labels have been thrown at him labels like autocrat demagogue even fascist now we know that such words are often used as blunt political tools to rile a president's opponents and Trump is not the 1st president to have the music against him but what do these words really mean and do any of them have any validity in Trump's case we checked in with cars and he's a political scientist at the University of Georgia in the southern city of Athens. Callus I'm afraid we don't have a lot of time with each of these terms but let's start with autocrat in political science terms of what is an autocrat other crowd the someone who rules undemocratically am pretty much by his himself without any accountability. And does trump qualify as an autocrat in your view I think you have strong autocratic tendencies which is in part how he ran his business but he still functions within a democratic system what does he need to do to kind of get to full talk Recy I mean he's already kind of like dismissing half of the country who voted for the other candidate yet that's not uncommon in the us because it is a winner takes all system to become an autocratic rule where he will have to pretty much dismiss the democratic system or just by a large He makes them powerless and I don't think we're at that far yet what about the word authoritarian Well authoritarian is a little bit similar although it tends to be related to regimes which again goes to non democratic regimes me step pretty much the people do not the site who rules and who are not accountable to popular support and the word fascists I suppose that's a long way off yes in my opinion it is I think fascist are not just author a Tarion but they're actually totalitarian which means that they want to control every aspect of life not just the political but also the economic and the social also fascism is a very strong ideology if you count really say that Trump is a very ideological or sheep I feel like I'm fishing here at let's go with the demagogue is the at least a demagogue a demagogue is someone who pretty much promises everything to everyone. And he has tendency of doing that in the sense that yes he cannot pretty much every position on every issue. Since coming to power he has. Relatively straightforward on some of the core issues she has what they call flip flopped on foreign policy but foreign policy tends to be reasonably secondary to most people she hasn't flip flop on the Muslim band or the wall so I don't think you can call him really a damage. Cuss Is there a word that you used to describe Trump to your students at the University of Georgia I think the rules of what I call radical right a populist radical right I think one of the key terms is all 3 Tarion he sees everything as law and order as discipline as loyalty but he's also very native as well he has a very narrow understanding of what the American people are and sees anyone or anything that isn't like that as fretting made up Muslims you know Mexicans need at the gates to a certain extent be that lefties are right one more word cuss and then I'll let you go optimist Are you an optimist. You know I come from a country the novel and switches deeply Calvinist and although I'm secular we are not really very good at optimism but I don't think that we're at the dawn of fascism. Kusma the political scientists at the University of Georgia thanks very much for this really appreciate it thank you Ok so I know that many of you emailed to say that you wanted less trouble on Boston calling up more but we have just one more Trump story for you today and it's not really even about Trump the man it's about the word trump and how it gets translated in different languages my colleague Nina pore Suki has been looking into this she's one of the hosts of a podcast called the world in words which is actually produced in the same studio here in Boston I looked at 3 different languages Russian Chinese but what really intrigued me and got me going was after seeing the sign for Trump in American Sign Language yet so what is the sign for trump the most common name sign for Trump is a curved open hand moving towards the front of your face kind of like you're combing your hair towards your forehead the comb over now of course this isn't without a bit of controversy within the s.l. Community and I spoke with Jamie Fisher she teaches a.s.l. At the University of Pennsylvania now some people I think take issue with that name sign because having a comb over isn't necessarily seen as positive so some people figure spell his name just t.r.u. M.p. And some people do his initials but the most commonly used sign is the sort of comb over sign Jamie actually describe for me several different name signs for politicians of the past and one of my favorites was for Nixon Some people use a sign that combines that sign for the letter n with the sign for lying Hillary Clinton's name is occasionally signed the same way with age and the sign for lying so let's talk for a moment Nina about character based languages like Chinese how is Donald Trump's name being translated in China Chinese linguist David Moser told me that when transliterating western names there's usually a certain set of common characters that are often used and in mainland China he says Donald Trump's name is kind of a pretty bland transliteration his last name is 3 syllables. It doesn't really mean anything those characters I mean. But no one's associates that and then they his 1st name. Is the usual transliteration Donald what about places like Hong Kong turns out that there is an alternate version for Donald's name that most are things originated in Hong Kong and that one actually has a clever double meaning they use the term Tron pool it literally means river and the pool as in people by the name of the official version of manner that they teach in the mainland trun pool could also mean try on as in Sichuan province he literally Sichuan Toha kind of a derogatory term that they've used for a long time that means bad Chinese they speak it's a drum problem well it's like multiple choice is it normal to have so many different versions of politicians anyway of their names in Chinese Yes in fact Mandarin speakers in mainland China and Taiwan and Hong Kong all might have slight variations for a foreign name so good example is President Reagan in the mainland he was called. But in Taiwan he was. Transliteration is complicated lease in Asia right you also check out Russian translations of Trump Yeah I just love this example I recently spoke with David Filipov the Russian bureau chief for The Washington Post and he had this great story well I was on a radio show and it was one of those shows where people call in and somebody asks me does Trump's name mean a woman of loose morals and I'm like What are they talking about then I realized they thought it Tripp like the lady is a trip like Frank Sinatra saying exactly and that is because there's no you sound in Russian so Trump in Russian gets transliterated in to get it tramp kind of sounds like tramp just hearing it's like I'm probably doing horrible Russian accent I pretty good and this guy who called into the radio show to ask David a question he knew enough English and he knew the song to know the English word tramp you know it's kind of hard to imagine the scenario happening in reverse. Or is that an American would hear a Russian name and think of a Russian word right but according to David Russian names have a lot of significance like take Putin I don't know if anybody knows what Putin actually means you know there are words in that name like what like what kind of words I think and well Russian names are created from roots and endings in is an adjective a lending for a mill style and style steel style and means the man of steel that was in his name is last name was Judas really and he took this kind of name as kind of like a stage name which is path but which it is also to confuse you know when you hear the 1st thing you hear is that and then Russians who make jokes like to make jokes based on some of these Peter pointedly means they got something confused and that name is in there you can hear it we can get it yeah I got a good one Ha what is the etymology of Trump anyway Well the word Trump actually comes from French and I spoke with David Bellos about this he teaches French language and literature at Princeton he told me that trump the word dates back to a 1000 years ago to when the Normans conquered the British Isles they brought with them lots and lots of words and one of which is this word pump or tome I'm not quite sure how it was pronounced in the Middle Ages but what it meant then was a trumpet a thing you blow on I came into English meaning trumpet and with the verb Tom playing meaning to trumpet to be make a noise and consequently also to fall out. Or when I was going to leave now we go into the scatological that's not the end so sometime around the 14th century according to bellows the meaning of the French were tump it changes from to blow a trumpet to to make a mistake or be wrong or cheat or deceive and this new meaning it's lips from the French into the meaning. Of the English word as well that sense remains in English in the expression a trumpery just deception or trumped up charges All right so kind of a corollary to this is Trump as in the trump card you know the card that beats all the other cards any relation how the word comes to be known as trump card is a bit of a mystery but by the 16th century there are instances of the English word trump being used in association with card games and cards by the 18th century. Means to win I mean it's a winning suit coats one that overrules the others and that's the meaning it's kept down to the 20th century Trump has it all with the surname He sure does mean a poor Azuki there from the podcast the world in words she gets too hungry. Far then. She likes that. Never comes late. I on the other hand am sometimes way overshot our midway point the point at which I'm supposed to tell you every week you're listening to Boston calling on the b.b.c. World Service with me Marco Werman There we're done our theme this week it's all words and ahead we have a story about the 1st refugees they are a perfect example of refugees who have been well assimilate into that new country thing is not everyone thought they were so perfect before we get to that though let's talk about hacking Don't worry I don't have news of a new cyber attack but it does seem like every week we hear about a different computer system that's been hacked and that got me thinking a little bit about the word itself and where it comes from it turns out that the word hack only recently became associated with computers and that was in part thanks to some mischievous students at mit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology not too far from our studios here in Boston Ben Zimmer a language columnist for The Wall Street Journal filled me in it actually all goes back to an undergraduate group. At mit called the tech model railroad club like model trains That's right yeah they were using the word hack in a very interesting way and fortunately they kept very good records and so there's actually minutes from 1000 to 5 where it says Mr Eccles requests that anyone working or hacking on the electrical system turn the power off to avoid fuse blowing so there was are already something going on with the word hacker there what did the term mean exactly in the fifty's there were positive and negative uses of that word hack going all the way back to the mit days you could do something as a hack that was clever creative solution to a problem that an engineer might come up with but then there was also this darker side where it's more like malicious meddling and so those 2 senses of hacking and hacker co-existed as it became popular in computer programming though the positive kind of hacking was the one that programmers themselves liked to identify themselves with before 959 what was the etymology of hack in the old old days that come from the word Hackney like a cabdriver Well there are actually a couple of different meanings of the word hack with different etymological roots so if you go all the way back to Middle English say the 13th century there was a word hack which meant to cut with heavy blows in an irregular fashion and that word hack would also be used to describe a tool for chopping this idea of chopping something ends up getting used in sports where you could talk about golf player who isn't very good and just hacks up a ball but at the same time we have this other etymological stream that actually originally came from Old French and it was used to refer to an ordinary horse that could get hired out with a horse and carriage so that ordinary course then got extended to people if you were Hackney or hack for short. Just meant you were a drudge So then we also have things like political hacks or party hacks or act right or all these senses that come out of that ordinary horse back in the olden days so it's interesting how there are 2 different origins for that word that develop 2 different meanings and yet we see them kind of intermingling in the way that Hackett's used today is it unhelpful to have that as the verb when it seems to suggest so many things well it can be rather imprecise in the 1980 s. When hacker started getting this negatives reputation in the media computer programmers themselves tried to fight back and they said the people who do these bad things of breaking into computer systems those are actually crackers Well that didn't really work and so you know hacker still to this day has this negative connotation very frequently but we do this with words all the time sometimes there can be a lot of ambiguity unless you really 'd look at the context carefully to know which kind of hacking you're talking about Ben Zimmer language columnist with The Wall Street Journal thank you very much thank you. Now to the history of another word that's been in the headlines a lot here recently especially since the president's proposed travel ban from several war torn Muslim majority nations that word is refugee seeking refuge from war persecution famine is nothing new and neither is the word refugee it goes back to 17th century Britain my London based colleague Leo Hornak has been looking into how the word got coined in a way the clue is in the word itself it has a French origin and the reason for this is in the 17th century huge numbers of Protestant French refugees felt persecuted by the Catholic rule of Louis the 14th in particular and crossed the Channel into Britain trying to find a place where there their religious views would be more tolerated they didn't just go to Britain but that was one of the huge centers for these Huguenot was that was the name that they went by this hug