Krystal Ball said that George Clooney was seen as a cipher of Obama at 16:34 in https://youtu.be/54yzfCl3yKw. cipher means an unimportant person, but that meaning doesn't seem to apply here. so what does it mean here?
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I think it's an extremely dated usage. The full OED definition is 2.a. 1507– A person who fills a place, but is of no importance or worth, a nonentity, a ‘mere nothing’. For which their most recent cited usage is 1861. I haven't followed your link, but doubtless the intended meaning is a politically "unimportant" person (so far as I know, Clooney hasn't yet even stood for high office, let alone been elected).– FumbleFingersCommented Jul 22 at 14:08
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1I just checked the source. It could be more figuratively OED definition 5.a. 1528– A secret or disguised manner of writing, metaphorically comparing Clooney himself to "text / utterances / policies written by Obama". Clearly the intended meaning is that Clooney is just a thinly-disguised "mouthpiece" for Obama.– FumbleFingersCommented Jul 22 at 14:14
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It is "a cipher for", not of.– TimRCommented Jul 22 at 15:58
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+1 to FumbleFingers. Compare "Some of course claim that he was a cipher for Gough, but this is not true. He was his own man, with forthright ideas about what needed to be done in foreign affairs." [my emphasis] Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: [Australian] House of Representatives– TimRCommented Jul 22 at 16:03
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It's odd that cipher can be nothing or a code, both deriving from Arabic صِفْر, empty. However, there was nought to gain by that description of Clooney.– DrMoishe PippikCommented Jul 22 at 16:35
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1 Answer
The secondary definition of 'cipher' in Cambridge is:
cipher noun (PERSON)
[ C ] formal disapproving
a person or group of people without power, but used by others for their own purposes, or someone who is not important
It sounds like she is simply saying that Clooney is speaking on behalf of Obama, saying things in public that serve his purpose.
