David Kopel Makes the Oxford English Dictionary Examples

From the usage examples for the word Hitlerist; the quote is from David's post Data on Mass Murder by Government in the 20th Century:

2022
Although the party had explicitly Stalinist and Hitlerist roots, the deaths are not assigned to either ideology.
Newstex Blogs: Volokh Conspiracy (Nexis) 9 November

Big time! Reason also makes it with an example of "puppycide" (in an article by Radley Balko):

2006
When the speaker mentions that the government also slaughtered two dogs during the siege, eyes light up, the indifferent get angry, and skeptics come around. Puppycide, apparently, goes too far.
Reason Magazine

Just to be clear, these weren't the first examples; puppycide, for instance, goes back to 1865.

Comments

[Area Man]

I love the OED. My favorite part is that it confirms that literally can mean figuratively, and that usage goes back to 1769.

[bernard11]

Of course puppycide goes too far.

Whatever one's opinions, puppies, as well as adult dogs, are obviously not conspiring to overthrow the government. All they want is a belly rub and a treat.

Admirable citizens, I'd say.

[Absaroka]

The 20 to 28 children who died at Waco weren't plotting the overthrow the government either.

To be clear, the Branch Davidians surely share the blame: when the cops show up at your door, surrender, for the sake of the kids. That said, it's reasonable to expect law enforcement to do all it can to resolve the situation peacefully, and I don't think they met that burden.

My source for that is the book 'Stalling for Time' by Gary Noesner. Mr. Noesner was a career hostage negotiator for the FBI, and the first head of the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit. He was at Waco during the siege as the negotiator.

[bernard11]

I don't disagree.

[santamonica811]

I always assumed that puppycide referred to one of its haunches. [rimshot]

[Black Richard]

Is that the first Volokh ref in the OED?
The main thing I miss being out of academia is the access to online references. OED, Lexis, papers, etc. Most frequently missed is likely the OED.

[Mark N.]

Depending on where you live, your local public library might have such subscriptions, and they might even allow off-site usage. Mine has a digital OED subscription I can use by logging in with my library credentials.

[kimoser22]

Public libraries for access are a good call. Also something I miss being a grad student is the access to OED.

FWIW George Mason had some weird access through their library for students where you would log on your student account through the library portal then the OED site would show you logged on as a random person (hopefully a librarian not random person).

[nicmart]

"Hitlerite" is apparently unknown to Kopel.