I am posting this OpEd Piece from the WSJ “Review” Section. Â Interesting, informative and educational. The “Squad” is the future of this country.
Ben Zimmer – Wall Street Journal 7.20.2019
For several days, President Trump has been taunting four progressive Democratic congresswomen known collectively as âThe Squadâ with insults widely condemned as racist.
The four lawmakersâReps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusettsâadopted the âsquadâ label shortly after they were elected last November, as they quickly joined forces on Capitol Hill.
When the four appeared together Monday to respond to Mr. Trumpâs initial inflammatory tweets, Ms. Pressley sought to assert a broader âsquadâ of like-minded supporters. âOur squad is big,â she said. âOur squad includes any person committed to building a more equitable and just world…. And given the size of this squad, and this great nation, we cannotâwe will notâbe silenced.â
How did the word âsquadâ become a proud label for a political cadre? It traces back to ancient military usage.
In Vulgar Latinâthe amalgam of informal dialects that became the colloquial source of the Romance languagesâthe word began as âexquadra,â meaning âsquare.â That evolved into âsquadraâ in Italian, âescuadraâ in Spanish and âesquadeâ in French. In these languages, the term could refer to the square formation that infantry troops used when under attack by cavalry. This kind of formation was used by Roman legions and carried on through the Napoleonic wars, eventually rendered obsolete by the development of modern weaponry.
âFiring squadâ first referred to soldiers detailed to fire a salute at a funeral.
English borrowed French âesquadeâ as âsquad,â appearing in the language by the late 16th century, not long after the related word âsquadronâ also entered the lexicon via the Italian form. Both âsquadâ and âsquadronâ originally referred to small groups of military personnel; a note from the earl of Essex dated 1596 refers to a captain who âcommanded a squad of horseâ (meaning a cavalry squadron) in France.
âSquadâ developed new meanings in the military and law enforcement, such as the âfiring squad,â which first referred to soldiers detailed to fire a salute at a funeral and later to those tasked with executing someone condemned to death. In the early 20th century, âsquadâ became a designation for police units dealing with particular crimes. Such units included the âflying squadâ (a kind of rapid-response team), âvice squad,â âmurder squad,â and âriot squad.â
âFraud squadâ shows up in press reports in the early 1960s, and that rhyming pair was matched by âGod squadââa term first used on college campuses for evangelical Christian groupsâand of course âThe Mod Squad,â the ABC crime drama that made its debut in 1968 featuring a trio of hip undercover cops.
âSquadâ spread to other fields, notably sports, where it came to refer to the roster of players from which a team on the field is chosen, as in the victorious 23-player squad that recently represented U.S. womenâs soccer at the World Cup in France. In hip-hop circles, âsquadâ began to be used in the 1990s for a different kind of roster: rap groups that went by such names as the Def Squad and the Hit Squad.
In rap usage, âsquadâ flourished in recent years to refer to oneâs âposseâ or close circle of friends. In 2015, Taylor Swift appropriated âsquadâ to refer to her coterie of young celebrities, popularizing âsquad goalsâ (often rendered on social media with the hashtag #squadgoals) to allude to the aspirations of such an intimate group.
Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Tlaib and Omar became known as âThe Squadâ after Ms. Ocasio-Cortezposted a photo of the four of them on Instagram during the orientation for incoming House members. She captioned it âSquad,â and the term quickly caught on. This week, Ms. Tlaib directed a message on Twitter to her constituents, writing, âYou are all my squad!â While âsquadâ may be outgrowing its close-knit origins, it remains a powerful expression of solidarity.
Lee's Perspective 