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#148871 10/11/05 04:33 AM
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This is entirely a word question, not in any way a political one, so I would be grateful if those cave tourists who seem incapable of responding apolitically would try to exercise restraint on this occasion. That no doubt fruitless appeal out of the way, here's my question:

This headline left me wondering if it was a new usage of council, applying what I have always thought was a word for a group to just one person, or was a 'loose for lose' substitution, using "council" where "counsel" would seem more at home.

Which seems most likely?

#148872 10/11/05 05:12 AM
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Later in the article we find this:
It may also bear some similarity to realist tendencies of Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who last week enhanced the authority of his Expediency Council and its chairman, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to oversee the performance of Ahmedinejad's government, particularly in foreign policy. (emPHAsis added)

I think it's a deliberate fox-pass.

#148873 10/11/05 10:58 AM
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I'd feel at least as uncomfortable with counsel in that context. The only definition of counsel that I see that applies to a person or persons is that of a lawyer who gives legal advice or acts in a court case. I'd go with the "council of one" interpretation.

#148874 10/11/05 01:05 PM
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Witty is all. An expedient council. Good headline.

#148875 10/12/05 05:23 AM
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old hand
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a deliberate fox-pass most likely! A council of one is more expedient: there will be no deliberation.

#148876 10/12/05 11:42 AM
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There is a non-elected, politcal body in Iran called the Expediancy Council. So, I'd go with the council of one interpretation.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#148877 10/12/05 06:05 PM
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<sigh> (hi consuelo!)

#148878 10/12/05 08:01 PM
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sigh

Pardon me.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#148879 10/13/05 11:17 AM
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Quote:

I'd feel at least as uncomfortable with counsel in that context. The only definition of counsel that I see that applies to a person or persons is that of a lawyer who gives legal advice or acts in a court case. I'd go with the "council of one" interpretation.




Must notta looked very hard! This is from the very first dictionary cited in onelook.com:

http://snipurl.com/igwj (see def. 2)

Counsel does not refer exclusively to attorneys.


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