Word: barzun
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Dates: during 2004-2004
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...Good luck, coach. We live in a time and a culture in which vulgarity is so ubiquitous that the word has ceased to carry any hint of opprobrium, and where the concept of civility seems as dated as Ciceronian oratory. Cultural historian Jacques Barzun wrote recently that a 300-year-old "code of civilized manners" came to an end "about halfway into the 20th century." I'd argue that Barzun's dating is off by a couple of decades-otherwise my yellowed copy of a 1967 Playboy would be a lot smuttier than it is-but it's hard...