orthogonian
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A member of the Orthogonian society, a social club at Whittier College founded by Richard M. Nixon in opposition to the wealthy elites at Whittier.
adj
Pertaining to or characteristic of the Orthogonian society and its ethos of appealing to working-class values and opposition to a wealthy ruling elite.
Example Sentences
- "Orthogonians, like Nixon, saw themselves as hardworking "regular" people fighting against a powerful elite (personified by the Franklins) for status and wealth."
- "Fellow Orthogonians considered him an idealist who emphasized Orthogonian rituals to develop moral behavior among the members."
- "Al Stoll, a longtime Orthogonian who graduated from Whittier in 1949, surmised that Nixon possibly started the Orthogonian Society to compensate for the fact that he was a nonfactor on the field."
- "Nixon would employ the same Orthogonian politics in his adult career."
- "In place of "flower power" and "the struggle," America was offered what Rick Perstein in Nixonland calls an "Orthogonian” worldview. In its pure form, this ideal embraced the virtues of a productive, humble, and obedient adulthood."
- "Stone explored the Orthogonian concept thirteen years earlier in Nixon, though he did it with a lot less nuance."
Etymology
Coined by Richard M. Nixon in 1930 from Ancient Greek ὀρθός (orthós, “straight”), Ancient Greek γωνία (gōnía, “corner, angle”), + -ian, to mean "straight shooter".
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ὀρθός, γωνία