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Face it, America: Boston has a way with words
The Hub is a city on a hill of linguistic invention.
By Ralph KeyesUpdated May 9, 2021, 3:00 a.m.
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THE GERRY-MANDER, published in the Boston Gazette, March 26, 1812.ELKANAH TISDALE (1771-1835) / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In a 1955 magazine column, British journalist Henry Fairlie referred to those powerful individuals who actually run things, on and off stage, as “the establishment.” Fairlie’s usage suggested he had coined this term. When debunkers provided evidence to the contrary, Fairlie conceded their point. So who did say it first? Fairlie’s search for an answer led him to Boston’s Masonic Temple, where on Dec. 9, 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a lecture titled “The Conservative.” Emerson called the subject of his talk “an upholder of the establishment,” the earliest known use of that term in its contemporary sense. ....

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