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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Yeahbut®, this was offered in conjunction with the battle casualty stat of 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
No, Faldage...
Geez, Juan, I was just being a wiseass. I agree with consuelo that the writer was maybe a Brit. They do tend to use that expression.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Gotcha, Faldage...I figured you had to know that, but. Ten Four, good buddy. sometimes, late at night without an emoticon to light the way the inflection can be misconstured, as it were.  FWIW, I took consuelo's remark as a defense of the writer, too.  Yes, as AnnaS so aptly pointed out for us somewhere, it was started across the pond as a Britishism. And they can have full credit for it. 
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Yes, "went missing" is a common enough term over here in Britland: so much so that it no longer grates on my ear as does "went extinct".
But the same charge can be levelled at the former as at the latter.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Ahem.
‘Went missing’ has been used in the UK for many years as a rueful way of suggesting that something has been stolen or ‘ferreted away’ somewhere (the anthrax went missing sometime during the last ten years). Occasionally this may be applied to an individual who has disappeared but strictly that should only be if the disappearence was deliberate, probably for tactical or strategic reasons on the domestic or legal fronts (John went missing for a week after his contretemps with Sally and June). Its present usage would not include the sense of missing in action.
I tried Googling the expression and none of the instances I found where it had been used for ‘missing in action’ were on sites from the UK – not that this means anything, I’m just saying…
There are many sites that, irritatingly, assume you know their place of origin when in fact it takes some detective work to discover it, through spelling habits or chance references. This really struck home a couple of days back when a post from WW about pitcher plants had me clicking through various sites that all used terms such as ‘native’ or ‘one of our few insectivorous plants’ without specifically identifying the country of origin.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
So, then, do the folks who take the use of this aberration to missing-in-action, as well, also have to change MIA to WMIA? On a semantic note...when I used abhorrent before I actually meant aberrant...but since something abhorrent can be strongly aberrant, I guess it's subconsciously connected.
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
Here's a random thought:
Could it be that we are more comfortable with the usage of 'went/go', when referring to the singular, and use 'became', when referring to a group.
That might explain 'go mad' and 'became extinct'. Am too tired to think of anymore such examples as a buttress. Does this train of thought strike a chord with anyone else?
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