The Third World

Posted by ESC on November 07, 2002

In Reply to: Third World posted by Barney on November 07, 2002

: : : I know it was coined by former Primer Zhou EnLai from china and the former President of Tailand.

: : Did they do a word each?

: As I recall it came as a three word phrase 'The Third World', so we either need another suspect of one of those two has the lion's share of the accolades.

THIRD WORLD - "Originally, nations - usually underdeveloped - that were not aligned diplomatically with the 'Free World' of Western democracies or the 'Communist world'; later, the Arab-African-Latin American-Indian bloc, with which the People's Republic of China often identifies. The phrase was originally French (tiers monde), in use to describe the neutralists in the Cold War since the late forties. Alfred Sauvy, the French sociologist who died in 1990, was credited with coining the phrase in 1952.the phrase came into U.S. use in the sixties." From Safire's New Political Dictionary by William Safire (Random House, New York, 1993).

• Have to disagree with Safire Karl 11/07/02
  • Have to disagree Word Camel 11/07/02
  • Have to disagree with Safire ESC 11/07/02