Tonight's BBC News used a hyphenated word that seems of doubtful taste
Subsequent investigation of the virus showed
that it was written using a virus toolkit by the
name of the Visual Basic Worm Generator that
is widely available on the internet. The kits
offer a way for the unskilled to write viruses
and lets them pick the parts from a
pre-prepared list.
A second item uses a word that does not seem to fit the situation:
'Refugee' ship flounders
off Togo
> pre-prepared list
Maybe they were too lazy too say 'a previously prepared list' or 'a list prepared prior to ..'. But neither of those really makes sense in the context. What they really meant is that there are 'finished programming modules' which one merely has to choose from a list in order to design one's own worm. Conciseness, it seems, was not the best option here :-)
If nothing else, their use of alliteration is really quite splendid.
> 'Refugee' ship flounders
'To flounder' also had a connotation meaning swaying, bobbing, pitching, tottering etc. right? What's wrong with that?
Normally a person flounders in water and a ship founders. A ship could also flounder, though you have to suspect this was a malapropism in the report. It's hard to imagine a person foundering, and I wonder whether a flounder could do either.
Pre-prepared is one of these things that looks pleonastic but does make sense. You prepare a meal at 6 o'clock to serve it at 7, or you can prepare it beforehand, in the morning or the previous day perhaps. I agree that though there may be a temptation to say pre-prepare, a longer-winded form would be better.
In reply to:
and I wonder whether a flounder could do either.
*smile*
In reply to:
...and lets them pick the parts from a pre-prepared list.
If I was the editor of the piece I would have completely removed any version of "prepared" -- all you need to say is "...lets them pick the parts from a list." If there is a list it is understood that it was compiled ahead of time.
But founder comes from the different etymology that gives us words like foundation, so would imply a ship tending to sink rather than merely floundering around out of control on the surface, so I would argue this was legitimate discrimination of meaning if the boat wasn’t sinking. However, I expect in practice it may have been a malaprop – see the usage note below.
1. To proceed or perform in an unsteady, faltering manner : blunder, bumble1, bungle, fudge, fumble, limp, muddle, shuffle, stagger, stumble.
To move about in an indolent or clumsy manner : wallow, welter
USAGE NOTE The verbs founder and flounder are often confused. Founder comes from a Latin word meaning “bottom” (as in foundation) and originally referred to knocking enemies down; it is now also used to mean “to fail utterly, collapse.” Flounder means “to move clumsily, thrash about,” and hence “to proceed in confusion.” If John is foundering in Chemistry 1, he had better drop the course; if he is floundering, he may yet pull through.
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
'Refugee' ship flounders
off Togo
Did the ship sink, or was it merely in distress, requiring Coast Guard assistance?
Doesn't foundering require consummation in the form of actually *sinking? Perhaps the newscaster in question was simply making a play on words. Or perhaps I'm just giving him/her too much credit (aren't all news broadcasts infallible?)
Clearly, the ship sunk to the bottom, and struck so hard that it flattened and the portholes all ended up on one side. The ship's name was "Eric."
The ship's name was "Eric."
and do they name *all their ships Eric??
and do they name *all their ships Eric??
Only the ones with a license!
The ship merely had fishnets fouling the propellers and was running out of fuel.