Proper way to express “He disappeared them”
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While watching an early episode of the TV show, "The Blacklist," one of the characters used the phrase:
We got the list of the people he disappeared.
I'm sure they meant the people the bad guy helped to disappear, but shouldn't "he disappeared" mean that he, the bad guy disappeared?
What, exactly, did the character mean when he said that and what would be a grammatically correct way to say it?
sentence-construction phrase-meaning
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
add a comment |
While watching an early episode of the TV show, "The Blacklist," one of the characters used the phrase:
We got the list of the people he disappeared.
I'm sure they meant the people the bad guy helped to disappear, but shouldn't "he disappeared" mean that he, the bad guy disappeared?
What, exactly, did the character mean when he said that and what would be a grammatically correct way to say it?
sentence-construction phrase-meaning
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
add a comment |
While watching an early episode of the TV show, "The Blacklist," one of the characters used the phrase:
We got the list of the people he disappeared.
I'm sure they meant the people the bad guy helped to disappear, but shouldn't "he disappeared" mean that he, the bad guy disappeared?
What, exactly, did the character mean when he said that and what would be a grammatically correct way to say it?
sentence-construction phrase-meaning
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
While watching an early episode of the TV show, "The Blacklist," one of the characters used the phrase:
We got the list of the people he disappeared.
I'm sure they meant the people the bad guy helped to disappear, but shouldn't "he disappeared" mean that he, the bad guy disappeared?
What, exactly, did the character mean when he said that and what would be a grammatically correct way to say it?
sentence-construction phrase-meaning
sentence-construction phrase-meaning
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
asked Mar 30 at 15:02
JBHJBH
2,3571418
2,3571418
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
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If you look up disappear in the dictionary, you'll see that it has a transitive meaning:
to cause the disappearance of
This is exactly the meaning that's being used in the sentence you quote:
We got the list of the people he caused the disappearance of.
Usually, this transitive use of disappear, especially disappearing other people, has very sinister overtones. You'll see it used with secret police in totalitarian dictatorships, for example, or maybe with mafia-like criminal organizations. The implication is that the person or organization doing the disappearing has enough power and resources that they aren't just killing their enemies, they're invisibly snatching them away and destroying all evidence of their existence.
Edited to add:
I wrote "usually" above about the political implications of the transitive disappear, but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it is almost exclusively used in this case. Wikipedia says this about the word disappeared:
The term disappeared most commonly refers to the victims of forced disappearance.
Where forced disappearance has a particular meaning in international human rights law of a government's secret abduction, detention, and presumed execution of political enemies without a fair trial. If applied to an actor other than a government agent, it would imply that person belongs to an organization with power rivaling that of a national government.
This matches my gut sense of the transitive disappear as well. A native-speaking mother would not say to her child, "You disappeared your entire dinner - good job!" But you would read something like, "After German reunification and the declassification of Stasi documents, some of the relatives of the disappeared have finally learned the fate of their loved ones."
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
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oldest
votes
If you look up disappear in the dictionary, you'll see that it has a transitive meaning:
to cause the disappearance of
This is exactly the meaning that's being used in the sentence you quote:
We got the list of the people he caused the disappearance of.
Usually, this transitive use of disappear, especially disappearing other people, has very sinister overtones. You'll see it used with secret police in totalitarian dictatorships, for example, or maybe with mafia-like criminal organizations. The implication is that the person or organization doing the disappearing has enough power and resources that they aren't just killing their enemies, they're invisibly snatching them away and destroying all evidence of their existence.
Edited to add:
I wrote "usually" above about the political implications of the transitive disappear, but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it is almost exclusively used in this case. Wikipedia says this about the word disappeared:
The term disappeared most commonly refers to the victims of forced disappearance.
Where forced disappearance has a particular meaning in international human rights law of a government's secret abduction, detention, and presumed execution of political enemies without a fair trial. If applied to an actor other than a government agent, it would imply that person belongs to an organization with power rivaling that of a national government.
This matches my gut sense of the transitive disappear as well. A native-speaking mother would not say to her child, "You disappeared your entire dinner - good job!" But you would read something like, "After German reunification and the declassification of Stasi documents, some of the relatives of the disappeared have finally learned the fate of their loved ones."
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
add a comment |
If you look up disappear in the dictionary, you'll see that it has a transitive meaning:
to cause the disappearance of
This is exactly the meaning that's being used in the sentence you quote:
We got the list of the people he caused the disappearance of.
Usually, this transitive use of disappear, especially disappearing other people, has very sinister overtones. You'll see it used with secret police in totalitarian dictatorships, for example, or maybe with mafia-like criminal organizations. The implication is that the person or organization doing the disappearing has enough power and resources that they aren't just killing their enemies, they're invisibly snatching them away and destroying all evidence of their existence.
Edited to add:
I wrote "usually" above about the political implications of the transitive disappear, but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it is almost exclusively used in this case. Wikipedia says this about the word disappeared:
The term disappeared most commonly refers to the victims of forced disappearance.
Where forced disappearance has a particular meaning in international human rights law of a government's secret abduction, detention, and presumed execution of political enemies without a fair trial. If applied to an actor other than a government agent, it would imply that person belongs to an organization with power rivaling that of a national government.
This matches my gut sense of the transitive disappear as well. A native-speaking mother would not say to her child, "You disappeared your entire dinner - good job!" But you would read something like, "After German reunification and the declassification of Stasi documents, some of the relatives of the disappeared have finally learned the fate of their loved ones."
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
add a comment |
If you look up disappear in the dictionary, you'll see that it has a transitive meaning:
to cause the disappearance of
This is exactly the meaning that's being used in the sentence you quote:
We got the list of the people he caused the disappearance of.
Usually, this transitive use of disappear, especially disappearing other people, has very sinister overtones. You'll see it used with secret police in totalitarian dictatorships, for example, or maybe with mafia-like criminal organizations. The implication is that the person or organization doing the disappearing has enough power and resources that they aren't just killing their enemies, they're invisibly snatching them away and destroying all evidence of their existence.
Edited to add:
I wrote "usually" above about the political implications of the transitive disappear, but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it is almost exclusively used in this case. Wikipedia says this about the word disappeared:
The term disappeared most commonly refers to the victims of forced disappearance.
Where forced disappearance has a particular meaning in international human rights law of a government's secret abduction, detention, and presumed execution of political enemies without a fair trial. If applied to an actor other than a government agent, it would imply that person belongs to an organization with power rivaling that of a national government.
This matches my gut sense of the transitive disappear as well. A native-speaking mother would not say to her child, "You disappeared your entire dinner - good job!" But you would read something like, "After German reunification and the declassification of Stasi documents, some of the relatives of the disappeared have finally learned the fate of their loved ones."
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
If you look up disappear in the dictionary, you'll see that it has a transitive meaning:
to cause the disappearance of
This is exactly the meaning that's being used in the sentence you quote:
We got the list of the people he caused the disappearance of.
Usually, this transitive use of disappear, especially disappearing other people, has very sinister overtones. You'll see it used with secret police in totalitarian dictatorships, for example, or maybe with mafia-like criminal organizations. The implication is that the person or organization doing the disappearing has enough power and resources that they aren't just killing their enemies, they're invisibly snatching them away and destroying all evidence of their existence.
Edited to add:
I wrote "usually" above about the political implications of the transitive disappear, but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it is almost exclusively used in this case. Wikipedia says this about the word disappeared:
The term disappeared most commonly refers to the victims of forced disappearance.
Where forced disappearance has a particular meaning in international human rights law of a government's secret abduction, detention, and presumed execution of political enemies without a fair trial. If applied to an actor other than a government agent, it would imply that person belongs to an organization with power rivaling that of a national government.
This matches my gut sense of the transitive disappear as well. A native-speaking mother would not say to her child, "You disappeared your entire dinner - good job!" But you would read something like, "After German reunification and the declassification of Stasi documents, some of the relatives of the disappeared have finally learned the fate of their loved ones."
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
edited Mar 30 at 16:08
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
answered Mar 30 at 15:10
Canadian YankeeCanadian Yankee
6,5111320
6,5111320
add a comment |
add a comment |
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