There's Treasure Everywhere!

[steepholm]

Two language queries came up today, and I'm sure this flist has the answer to them both.

a) Whenever I hear US pundits talking about the costs of America's various military endeavours, one of them usually refers at some point to the amount of "treasure" it's all cost. I don't hear that term used in the UK (although we have a Treasury, so perhaps it used to be), nor do I recall hearing the phrase applied to US domestic spending on, say, Medicare. I quite enjoy the vision of pirates chests it inevitably evokes, but I'm curious as to how widely used the word is in the States. Am I correct in my impression that it's a military thing?

b) Why isn't it "Octember"? And why didn't it occur to me to wonder until today?

c) Oh yes, you need a third item for a post. In that case, here are some of the classic children's literature texts I'm teaching this year. This isn't a query, but those who enjoy anagrams are welcome to give them a go:

Chastened Regret
Win Well with Hedonist
White Witch Bothered Another Land
Try Hero Part!
Wanna Nice Riddle? Lo!
Evil Cow's There
Grim, Not Bleak

All of those are quite appropriate to the books in question, but there's a bonus for "Dishearten Wheelwright".

Comments

[sovay]

Whenever I hear US pundits talking about the costs of America's various military endeavours, one of them usually refers at some point to the amount of "treasure" it's all cost.

I've never heard that. I must be listening to the wrong pundits.

White Witch Bothered Another Land

*snerk*

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I must be listening to the wrong pundits

I'll see if I can get chapter and verse, next time I come across it.

[sovay]

I'll see if I can get chapter and verse, next time I come across it.

And note that just because I don't recognize a military cliché doesn't mean it doesn't exist: I try to avoid that sort of thing on general principle!

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Same for me! I've never heard it, but I also try to avoid listening to those people talk as much as possible. ;)

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard that either. What it reminds me of is fundraising conversations in the church I used to attend, where people were always yattering on about donating one's "time, talents, and treasure."

Like propositions from the Mafia...

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Latin cardinal numerals, bar 1, 2, 3, and 100, are indeclinable. Thus, septem, octo, novem / September, October, November.

As for yr first query, it's a truncated cliché, 'blood-and-treasure'; pundits, particularly antiwar pundits, think wholly in cliché.

Re: Like propositions from the Mafia...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (This is the trouble with having gone to an ex-secondary mod.)

I suspect you're right about pundits, though this particular cliché, from my limited observation, is more popular with those from a military background.

Re: Like propositions from the Mafia...

[gair.livejournal.com]

One of my colleagues has a tshirt saying A GOOD LATINIST NEVER DECLINES SEX.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Pellinor says he's definitely come across it quite a lot in British sources from WW2, but since we're currently on the A30 somewhere near Okehampton, he can't produce specific references.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Here's a good history of the much used phrase it comes from: "blood and treasure". Its political use seems to originate with Hume, but it became more an American than a British meme.

(Also, I am adding you.)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's fascinating!

Having read that essay, I was inspired to check the phrase on a Google ngram, which shows that in both British and American English the phrase shot to prominence at the turn of the nineteenth century, before showing a fairly steady decline to the year 2000, with spikes in the US for the Civil War and in Britain for WWI. I suspect that if the data included the last ten years, the American graph at least would show a rise.