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User_gary Posted 16 years ago
Vocabulary
Dredge up, far be it for
American leaders are lively public speakers. They put in effort to lace their speeches with jokes and anecdotes that enliven the atmosphere and generate a warm, fuzzy feeling. Like Bill Clinton, Obama is a master at it. Hillary Clinton dredged up a wellknown Mark Twain quote rhapsodising about India. Obama trumped her with an even more rapturous quote about the greatness of India (Quick! Hide those dismal statistics about malnutrition, infant mortality, illiteracy etc).
Indian speechifying is, in contrast, largely pedantic, cliched, stolid. There is rarely a good turn of phrase, seldom a lively anecdote, and most quotes are banal and delivered without verve. Far be it for Indian speechwriters to surprise Americans by telling them that Twain's contemporary Ulysses Grant was the first US President to visit India (albeit after he demitted office), or express gratitude that the architect of our constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an alumnus of Columbia University (which is also Barack Obama's alma mater) and was a student of the philosopher John Dewey.
Please explain to me what "far be it for" and "dredge up" means here.
Though I know "dredge up" generally means "to talk about past bad events".
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Bharat-Ombaba-comes-to-India/articleshow/6014730.cms
Indian speechifying is, in contrast, largely pedantic, cliched, stolid. There is rarely a good turn of phrase, seldom a lively anecdote, and most quotes are banal and delivered without verve. Far be it for Indian speechwriters to surprise Americans by telling them that Twain's contemporary Ulysses Grant was the first US President to visit India (albeit after he demitted office), or express gratitude that the architect of our constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an alumnus of Columbia University (which is also Barack Obama's alma mater) and was a student of the philosopher John Dewey.
Please explain to me what "far be it for" and "dredge up" means here.
Though I know "dredge up" generally means "to talk about past bad events".
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Bharat-Ombaba-comes-to-India/articleshow/6014730.cms
Top answer
"dredge up" has a disparaging sense: it conjures up an image of retrieving something from the mud at the bottom of a river, for example. Things that are "dredged up" are things that might be better left buried; they may related to past bad events, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Instead, the suggestion is that this Mark Twain quote does not need another airing -- perhaps because it has been used too many times, or is an oudated cliché.
- "dredge up" has a disparaging sense: it conjures up an image of retrieving something from the mud at the bottom of a river, for example.
- Things that are "dredged up" are things that might be better left buried; they may related to past bad events, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
- Instead, the suggestion is that this Mark Twain quote does not need another airing -- perhaps because it has been used too many times, or is an oudated cliché.
- "far be it from X to Y" means that it is not X's habit, intention or responsibility to do Y.
- "far be it for " is a common error.
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1 Answers
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"dredge up" has a disparaging sense: it conjures up an image of retrieving something from the mud at the bottom of a river, for example. Things that are "dredged up" are things that might be better left buried; they may related to past bad events, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Instead, the suggestion is that this Mark Twain quote does not need another airing -- perhaps because
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