Our modern-day internet flame wars had their root back in medieval time, when a Frenchman, defending his village, would hurl the Word of Despise, which is the Grand Double Spise, dripping with contempt and disdain, back at the barbarian chasing him, causing the horde-member to stop in his tracks, nonplussed and bewildered and momentarily disoriented at the sheer power of the Froggie’s verbal thrust, then go back to the Frenchman’s village and rape his wife and children before murdering them and pillaging the town, instead of first chasing the Frenchman into the woods and cutting off his privy parts, gouging out his eyes, disemboweling him and forcing him to eat his own entrails until he died of shock and pain. A small victory, perhaps, but still, a victory, of sorts.
Word-Brundishing, a neologism I have just coined, is a sort of portmanteau of brandishing, bandying and taking umbrage, using words. The French are so adept at it because they are so inept at actual combat. The Gauls, the mirror of the Brits, are renowned for their stupendous defeats instead of their great victories. Waterloo, Agincourt, the Maginot Line, all have entered the lexicon of metaphors for great idiotic blunders and defeats.
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