Word watch: town hall meeting

A reader has an interesting point to make about a phrase that is all over the news these days:

"It is sad that Kilpatrick has given up writing his columns on usage.  If he were still writing, I am certain that he would by now have issued one of his 'injunctions' against the currently sickeningly popular cliche 'town hall meeting.'  If it ain't held in a bonafide town hall, call it a community meeting or a high school gym meeting or whatever it is."

Of course these meetings on health care and health-care insurance are not in actual town halls, but they are like meetings traditionally held in small towns, especially in New England, to allow residents to express their opinions directly to elected officials. A Wikipedia article actually draws a distinction between town meetings, where votes are taken to decide how a town should be governed, and town hall meetings, which are merely for gathering opinions and airing of viewpoints. (This Commonwealth of Massachusetts site explains town meetings and their rules, including guidelines on how to speak in debate without attacking another speaker personally.)

A Fox News piece examines the current town hall meeting concept, noting that the forums often seem less about gathering opinions from the public and more about elected officials or candidates presenting their own stands. During the 2008 campaign, both presidential candidates used town hall meetings to talk to and at the voters.

Perhaps we in the news media are too quick to reach for a cliche or to adopt the terminology that newsmakers themselves use. But consider the word "forum." It comes from the actual place where ancient Romans gathered to discuss public matters, but it now means any public discussion. That's how words enter our language. We turn a literal phrase into a figurative one. Perhaps we can say that town hall meeting no longer needs to be taken literally.