When you hear the term "mud huts"
We've spent a fair amount of real estate in our past newsletters discussing coded words and phrases — shortcuts that writers use to evoke images or themes, often unfairly. An NPR audience member recently brought another phrase to our attention: "mud huts."
When a journalist describes a building as a "mud hut" or a "mud house," many Americans will infer extreme poverty and substandard living conditions in a faraway country. And yet, equating the construction material with an economic standard isn't fully accurate. In some places, it's considered trendy and environmentally sound to build a house made of mud or clay. Some ancient cities that are still inhabited were built from mud. And in the American Southwest, historic adobe homes are rarely described as mud homes.
Yet, it's hard to avoid describing homes built from mud and clay when the people journalists are interviewing also use
