Basic Guidelines For English Spellings
READ THESE ARTICLESproper noun
A battleship whose crew mutinied during the Russian Revolution of 1905 when in the Black Sea, bombarding Odessa before seeking asylum in Romania. The incident persuaded the tsar to agree to a measure of reform.
Pronunciation
adjective
informalHaving a false or deceptive appearance, especially one presented for the purpose of propaganda.
‘a Potemkin news network, set up only to give the appearance of a free press’- ‘Now, there's a 21st century twist on the Potemkin village: Potemkin refugee camps!’
- ‘Although I thought of Potemkin villages and Soviet demands for conformity, 1 believe that I heard statements of genuine belief.’
- ‘Pervading everything is an atmosphere of laziness and Potemkin villages.’
- ‘Typically in such cases, democracy is a Potemkin affair.’
- ‘The Leftist Potemkin seems to think we should have the same rules for children as for adults.’
- ‘The President has established something like a Potemkin government.’
- ‘The Shuttle has become like a Potemkin space program, built purely for the purpose of appearing to exist.’
- ‘A Potemkin nation based on a house of cards laws simply will not work.’
- ‘A lot of countries in the region have elections and legislatures, but they seem to be Potemkin parliaments with no real power.’
- ‘Meanwhile the rounding up of spurious suspects, like Potemkin villages, serves to mask the Government's weakness, rather than exemplify its strengths.’
- ‘He too is portrayed as being unable to penetrate the local officials' Potemkin displays of fealty.’
- ‘For decades, the region has pursued a development strategy that brought it economic trophies that were part of a Potemkin economy, masking underlying failure.’
- ‘What I've heard some of the judges say is they feel they've participated in a Potemkin court.’
Origin
1930s from Grigori Aleksandrovich Potyomkin (often transliterated Potemkin), a favorite of Empress Catherine II of Russia, who reputedly gave the order for sham villages to be built for the empress's tour of the Crimea in 1787.
Pronunciation
Are You Learning English? Here Are Our Top English Tips
