Ink Spots is a blog dedicated to the discussion of security issues across the spectrum of conflict and around the world. Our contributors are security professionals with interests and expertise ranging from counterinsurgency, stability operations, and post-conflict environments to national security strategy, security cooperation, and materiel acquisition. We hope this site will be a forum for discussion on both the issues of the day and broader, long-term developments in the security sphere.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
We're Famous! Well, Sort of...
At least the name of our blog is gaining more traction, even if it has nothing to do with us. Starbuck (as you all know writes Wings Over Iraq) brought this great post from War is Boring to my attention this morning. So read on for those of you interested in the history of the term ink spots - there are some great links here.
I guess I should've posted about that Axe piece instead of just commenting! See here.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I find most interesting, as a language dork, is that the typical terminology in English has always been "oil spot" or "ink blot," rather than "ink spot." The latter formulation has really just come into vogue since 2006, as far as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteFor us to us the combination "Ink Spots" was sort of a COIN-Nerd joke: combining COIN terminology with the idea of ink as it relates to writing. (It seems to me that you'd rarely refer to "ink blots" from a pen; when I hear those words in combination I'm thinking of a Rorshach test or a COIN term.)