The lexicon is increasingly belligerent, Treccani’s warning

Terms such as ‘trench’, ‘front line’, ‘surgical raid’, ‘special military operation’, ‘deterrence’, ‘collateral damage’, ‘drone’ are becoming common use, alongside neologisms such as ‘pro-Pal’ (“those who support the political cause of the Palestinian people”) or ‘sumud’ (“resilience, resistance, hope for the future, solidarity, understood as cultural and political values ​​of the Palestinians”). The lexicon of the Italian language, thanks to Russian aggression in Ukraine, the persistent conflict in the Middle East with Israel and the Gaza Strip and now with the attack on Iran, is adapting to the tensions of the present, with the use of many terms, such as ‘existential threat’, which seemed confined to the literary memory or historiography of the twentieth century.

The role of the media and social networks is also crucial in this process, argues Marco Brando, which select themes, images and words, orienting collective perception and helping to spread a warlike lexicon that fuels states of anxiety and alarm and favors polarization dynamics, in which the choice of one word over another can imply a precise cultural or political position. The most emblematic case is represented by ‘genocide’, a word that has gone from a technical-juridical term to a political battle cry, arousing bitter controversy between those who denounce its inflated use and those who believe that that word is the only one adequate for the destruction of Gaza and the massacre of its inhabitants. Symmetrically, the concept of ‘self-defense’ has been subjected to intense critical analysis: while for some it is the cornerstone of Israeli legitimacy, for others it has become a euphemism to cover disproportionate retaliatory operations.

Similarly, the term ‘weapon’, already used in a figurative sense during the pandemic, today returns to indicate concrete instruments of offense: “Sanctions alone are not enough, the weapon against Putin is also information” we read in the newspapers.

If today language reflects a reality marked by divisions and violence, the reference to Easter – traditionally linked to the themes of peace, reconciliation and liberation – despite its fragility, can promote a more conscious use of words, in a time in which war has once again become, painfully, “the common vocabulary of the human condition”, concludes Marco Brando. (by Paolo Martini)