Well, according to the OED, a costume is "The mode or fashion of personal attire and dress (including the way of wearing the hair, style of clothing and personal adornment) belonging to a particular nation, class, or period." Under this definition, the word costume is completely appropriate for traditional dress.

Max,

I think we have debated enough on this site the difference between a word's literal definition and they way it is used today. The fact is, I did not feel the announcers were using the word "costume" in that way. They would use it with amusement in their voices as well as other demeaning statements such as. "Well that guy sure looks dressed for the evening." or "well that is definitely the most unusual of the night" There was no mention of traditional garb of any kind. Also am I the only one that felt there were times when the announcers were practically dripping with american elitism? They acted like they were expecting Iraq and Iran were going to go nuts and they made comments about how these ceremonies are so important for some countries cause there was "no way" they could compete in the actual olympics. Truth or not, the ceremony is supposed to be about harmony and support not snide comments about the faults of other countries or their lack of competitiveness.

Even when they mentioned some of the other countries forbidding of women to compete, or the athlete from I believe Afghanistan, seeking asylum, it sounded very "those savages"

A huge WORD to that, MzBitica, and great follow-up in comments. Max, what she said is spot on. It's all about context.

I couldn't bear to watch more than the first few minutes of the opening ceremony. I had politics on the brain the whole time, and I was pretty disgusted by the gross show of hyped-up nationalism on China's part. What the opening ceremony is supposed to be about is certainly not reflected in this year's ceremony or the Olympics overall.

I am not at all sorry I missed those announcers in action, but I am very glad that you brought it to our attention. How incredibly slighting of them to behave the way they do. Privileged fucks.

Sorry, *MzBitca :)

Those announcers last night were horrific. When Malawi walked out, one of them said "when you think of Malawi, you might think of Madonna; she recently adopted a child from Malawi..."
Not a word about the athletes. Not a word about the country. My family and I just sort of stared at the screen with our mouths hanging open.

He made several similar paternalistic comments about other countries when it was obvious he had nothing in front of him. It was clear no one bothered to do any research beforehand. What happened to quality reporting?

THANK YOU! Out of all the people I watched the opening ceremony with and not to mention all the people I talked with today about it, not one of them seemed concerned about this flagrant lack of respect.

Thanks everyone. I just kept saying to my husband "did they just say that?" Over and over again.

I also kept saying "I think Laura Bush is a robot" as well but that's a completely seperate issue. Also, did anyone notice the nasty look the guy gave Bush when he stood up when the USA walked in.

In Greek the word "costumi" means clothing or attire.
In English, costume means attire or clothing, what one wears, etc.

I'm with Max on this one, though I can understand some of the other issues brought up in the comments.

I wasn't offended by the nationalism. I enjoyed the visual symbolism and performance art.

As for what happened to good reporting-
it went away in the late 70's early 80's when this country voted in an idol of wealth and greed, an actor as president. It was the same era that brought us info- tainment and killed investigative reporting.

One of the commentators was the male from a morning fluff show that has bubbly female hosts, the other was a man who reports primarily on mens sports. I wasn't expecting anything intelligent to be said.

MetaHara, etymology and abstract definitions aside, the bottom line is that 'costume' isn't used to talk about everyday dress in actual use.

Right on, MzBitca! I noticed the same thing watching the games and blew a minor gasket hearing it again and again :)

Just to put my original post into more perspective:

I engaged in ethnic serbian dancing for close to 13 years. I wore traditional ethinic garb. I was constantly surrounded with phrases like "That's a funky looking costume" "Serbs dress weird." "That looks like a halloween costume."

So yes, I understand the definite meaning of the word without any social or cultural constructs being in place. However, the tone of the announcers, plus their other cultural insensitivities signaled that they were not thinking of the OED definition or the Greek root of the word, but were in fact commenting on the "oddness" of the outfits.

I guess for me sufficient context would have been "traditional costume" versus "costume." I can see how someone could be associate "costume" with Halloween or theater, but when I hear it in that the former sense, I equate with outfit.

But yeah, I can see trying to avoid an argument about literal definitions of words. Those end badly. I was really trying to defend how I actually did interpret by bringing in some outside source to prove I was not crazy, but I apologize if I came across as snubbing your post.

Anyway, I missed the Malawi announcer, but that sounds pretty scary, although given the current state of mainstream media, perhaps I shouldn't be expecting better.

Again, sorry for not clarifying myself earlier.

Max,

I do not think you were snubbing my post, I've just seen other threads on her get really focused on definitions and I wanted to prevent that here. The only times I heard the word costume did not involve traditional in any way so that's why I did not think they were following the correct definition. :)

There were so many things they said that I found totally offensive. Did you catch the one about the female athlete that had been elected by text-message voting to bear her country's flag? (They said, "Oh, she must have been voting for herself." WTF??) Every single one of their "jokes" had me shaking my head. And they always treat the African nations like oddities; I couldn't help but think that any African-Americans watching the same thing must have felt totally alienated by it. If I didn't love watching the Parade of Nations so much, I would have turned it off too.

Amen.

To underline your point: Nations wearing western clothing were not wearing "costumes" according to the announcers. In fact, NO comment was made at all regarding the dress of nations that had on modern, western silhouettes.

Also, for one nation (I apologize because I cannot remember which one) the leader of the nation had a hand in picking out the outfits for their team. The announcers said that "it'd be like President Bush looking at color swatches (laughter)".

First, what's wrong with President Bush looking at color swatches? I guess that's just a little too "feminine" for such a manly-man...
Second, for many small countries, the Olympics are one of very few opportunities they get on a world stage. It seems completely appropriate for the leader of said country to have a hand in how he wants his nation represented in the minds of millions of people for the next four years.