Jackie:

When I read your post I was amazed that someone could use convict in this manner, and assumed it was a backformation from conviction. I consulted my dictionary, and found the first definition of convict to be to find or prove guilty, but the second is interesting: to convince of wrongdoing or sinfulness. So I went to convince, and found there as an obsolete usage: to convict!!!

To me, there's something even uglier than what you cited: I convinced the person to stop his action. ARGH!!! convince is to cause someone to believe something, not to coerce!

Thanks for leading me to look. I learned something very interesting!


TEd