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Comment by AmbroseBierce | Hacker News Reader

At some point when you go to extreme lengths to pick the softest wording possible you yourself become an accomplice, they didn't "summon", that word is better for fantasies where they summon spirits or beasts like shai-hulud, here the fitting word would be "forced" as in "Iran government forces families of exiled journalists to stop any criticism against them"

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To summon someone implies force both in the "real world" use and in the mythological use.

In the real world it generally means to order, with the implication that there are consequences to failing to appear, and the consequences in this case are clear from the juxtaposition of wanting to shut up exiled journalists and summoning their families.

In mythology it typically implies incantations etc. forces the entity to appear.

There's nothing soft about that wording. If anything "to summon" is often used to imply a level of disdain and lack of legitimate basis that is not implicit in "to order"

The word summon comes from Anglo-French somundre and Old French somondre (or semondre), meaning "to call, send for, or notify". It derives from the Latin summonere, meaning "to remind privately, warn, or hint to".

To summon is the correct word in this case. The fantasy meaning comes from thee power politics between one that summons (usually: a king) and the one being summoned (usually the serf).

Etymology is irrelevant to current meaning and understanding.

I sincerely doubt that if someone hears 'summon' today, they think about Dungeons and Dragons-style summoning of fantasy beings. They more likely hear 'to be made to appear in front of [a state power / a court / ...]"

As such, current understanding is closely aligned to the etymological meaning.

Even summoning in fantasy tends to imply the entity being summoned has no choice in the matter. If anything, summoning in fantasy is usually stronger, in that there is a tendency for it to imply the entity is powerless to resist.

In this case, however, it reflect the current usage.

If you click the link you'll see the byline says "summoned and threatened"

I would prefer to be summoned and threatened, forced, or even exiled, than get outright assassinated by quadcopter, airstrike or sniper rifle (or something else).

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/12/1166481

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

No worries they did those (except the quadcopter I think) already. There’s no shortage of evil here or there.

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