Clan or Klan

Pedro   Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:36 pm GMT
I have a friend in Georgia who I sometimes write to. I have noticed that he occasionally will write about his "klan". I have looked for the word in the dictionary but I can only find "clan"- "a group of close knit families". Is klan the US spelling of clan? Can someone please tell me what he means by "lynch"?
Guest   Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:52 pm GMT
They are just inbred idiots who can't spell. Rednecks!
Jim C, York   Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:35 pm GMT
Unless the KKK are still going, Ide stop talking to your friend as soon as possible.......its definatly Clan.
Guest   Sat Jun 10, 2006 4:15 pm GMT
I agree. He could be luring you to a nasty end.
Johnathan Mark   Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:35 pm GMT
Is this a joke?

The Klan is the Ku Klux Klan, a historic anti-black, anti-Catholic, and anti-Jew group that was responsable for maintaining the old, racist order in the South through terror. Lynching means to kill someone by hanging them, and was commonly done to blacks (and Jews) by the Klan, usually under the (often false) pretense that the individual had committed some crime against a white person.

The Klan is still around today, but doesn't have the power or influence that it had in the past.
Pedro   Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:53 pm GMT
Thanks everyone-

I won't answer his emails in future
Guest   Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:38 pm GMT
Is it Canada or Kanada?
Ed   Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:39 pm GMT
> Is it Canada or Kanada?

Canada in English, Kanada in various other languages including Afrikaans, Bahasa Indonesia, Basque, German, Swedish and Turkish.
Uriel   Sun Jun 11, 2006 7:29 am GMT
I would think this is a joke, too, but here are your answers, Pedro --

Clan is an English word meaning a group of close-knit families, as you say.

"Klan" is an intentional misspelling used by the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization that no sane person should be having anything to do with. You might want to ditch that pen pal. Why he's even writing to you is a whole 'nother question....

To lynch someone is to kill someone illegally, vigilante-style. In its heyday, the KKK was fond of dragging black people off and hanging them, etc, and the law had a tendency to look the other way. These days, well, they may talk big, as your "friend" apparently likes to do, but they don't get away with it anymore, and it hardly ever happens any more.

I have a feeling your buddy is some little immature brat who likes to brag about things he's never actually done.
Jim C, York   Mon Jun 12, 2006 1:08 am GMT
I thought it was an illegal group nowerdays? (or has it just changed its name to the NRA? Bowling to Columbine said something along those lines) though i have seen on the telly, people with white hoods on etc...EVEN KIDS! its disgusting.
american nic   Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:35 am GMT
No, the KKK isn't an illegal group, it's now just illegal to do anything they want to do other than protest crap. And (lol) the NRA is a totally different group that is the gun lobby in the US. They're also a bit out there (far right), but not quite as insane.
Presley.   Mon Jun 12, 2006 5:22 am GMT
The whole deals is disgusting.

They do it all in the name of "God".

God is love - not hate.

Check out their website: http://www.kkk.com
Presley.   Mon Jun 12, 2006 5:24 am GMT
I was tyoing fast. I meant deal - not deals.
Damian in Dun Eidann   Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:42 am GMT
If there is one country that knows about clans, then it's mine. Clans, and belonging to them, still has a place in Scottish life, but now, thankfully, only from a heritage point of view. Long gone are the days when clans fought against each other over territorial rights or to settle old scores.

I can claim total belonging to "my clan" - the Grants, and can legitimately wear the clan tartan, which I do but not on an everyday basis. Actually the last time I wore my kilt was at my stepfather's civic service last year (he's a local councillor) and practically all the males wore the tartan. I'm not really one of those blokes who loves to strut down Princes Street on a Saturday afternoon and revels in being photographed by foreign tourists.

"Clannish" is more or less a negative word nowadays. It means sticking closely to a group you strongly associate with rather than being more outgoing and sociably accessible. Not a very nice trait really in everyday life.

As for the Ku Klux Klan - from what I read up about them, they seem little different from Al Quaeda or any other organisation seeking to harm other human beings for whatever reason.