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According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, what name was modified to coin the word jingo?



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Answer: Jesus

The word jingoism denotes the aggressive pursuit of coercive foreign policy.

This sense arose from a 19th-century British music-hall song called We Don't Want to Fight written by George William Hunt (c. 1829 ? 1904). The song became popular during the Turco-Russian war of 1877 because Britain was considering intervention. Here's a verse:

We don't want to fight, but, by jingo if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men,

we've got the money too.

We've fought the Bear before,

and while Britons shall be true,

The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

The Russians never did get Constantinople ? they couldn't find it because the wily Turks had changed its name to Istanbul.


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