GORBY NOUN (POLITICS)

A Western nickname for Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1985 and President of the Soviet Union sice 1990; used in compounds and blends including Gorbymania, widespread public enthusiasm outside the Soviet Union for Mr Gorbachev and his liberalizing policies. Etymology: Formed by adding the diminutive suffix -y to the first syllable of Gorbachev. History and Usage: The nickname became widely known throughout the English-speaking world in 1987, when Mr Gorbachev was enthusiastically greeted with cries of Gorby from large crowds of people both in Western Europe and in Warsaw Pact countries on trips outside the Soviet Union. His ability to communicate with Western leaders (summed up by Margaret Thatcher's famous phrase 'This is a man we can do business with') as well as his determination to turn round the Soviet economy through perestroika made him appear to many people in the West as the embodiment of a new order in world politics (even though he could not command the same popularity inside the Soviet Union), and certainly contributed to the disappearance of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The most fevered period of Gorbymania (also sometimes written Gorbamania or Gorbomania) came in 1987-9; it was also called Gorby fever in the press. So great was the enthusiasm for Gorby that, at the time of the signing of the INF treaty in December 1987, one US commentator sarcastically dubbed it a Gorbasm: this word, too, was taken up enthusiastically by journalists (who did not always use it with the critical connotations of William Bennett's remark, quoted below). He had that smile, he had those surprises, he had the INF Treaty. Gorbachic! Gorbymania! Or, as Secretary of Education William Bennett said, warning of overenthusiasm, 'Gorbasms!' Washington Post 11 Dec. 1987, section C, p. 13 Gorbymania grips Bonn...Mikhail Gorbachev stepped out on to the balcony...and appeared overwhelmed by the thousands of Germans cheering his name in a euphoric welcome. 'Gorby! Gorby! Gorby!' they shouted. Sydney Morning Herald 15 June 1989, p. 15 In the midst of his country's bout of Gorbymania, the fact that George Bush is...cautious...may have obscured his own little Gorbasm. Within days of the opening of the Berlin Wall, the defense secretary...was asking the services to find 180 billion dollars of cuts over three years. Spectator 9 Dec. 1989, p. 9