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Third World country

Posted by Lotg on May 08, 2003

In Reply to: Third World country posted by ESC on May 08, 2003

: : what is the origin of "third world country"?

: From the archives:
: 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).

: There was some disagreement on this during a previous discussion. Type "Third World" in search.

OK, but why THIRD? Why not "second world"? Is there such a category and who would fit into that category?

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