The dilution of a word -- diplomacy: A slightly edited Facebook exchange

We all know that when we go to the supermarket, much of the "food" we buy is deceptively labeled -- from "ice cream" to "chicken."

In all fairness to supermarkets, they have tried to inform the public in more detail as to what it (the public) is actually going to put into its stomach.

As a former diplomat (I still hope the All-Mighty will absolve me of my sins in the world's second oldest profession), I am struck by the dilution (a scholar's word -- see below) of the word/label "diplomacy."

I have been religiously following on the internet the adjectives imposed on the noun "diplomacy" for some time. You name 'em.

So here's an edited Facebook exchange on the latest ad added to dip:

John Brown

May 29 at 12:58pm ·

And now we have ... City Diplomacy

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• --I do see the dilution as a problem -- but its had enough to find diplomacy in foreign ministries these days. 
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• -- In most cities, they call it trade promotion.
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  John Brown And then we have that stupendous State Dept product, "DipNote," http://blogs.state.gov/ where the word "Diplomacy" has had its "lomacy" (sounds like a tumor; or, perhaps "lunacy") surgically removed.
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  DipNote

  DipNote: the official blog of the U.S. Department of State.

  BLOGS.STATE.GOV
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  John Brown Pix of Arianna LoMacy (https://twitter.com/ariannamarks)
  

  
  

  

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• --Comment: So is that the new face of 21st Century Statecraft?
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