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#120648 01/21/04 12:49 AM
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A news commentator on the radio, to which I was listening on my way home this afternoon, said that Dick Gephardt's announcement of his withdrawal from the Democratic presidential primary race was "anticlimatic." Really? I am quite certain that he meant "anticlimactic" but I have heard this mistake made so many times that I fear the error may overcome the proper term. Isn't there a word to describe an error which becomes so common that it "wins" in the sense of taking over from correct usage? Besides "stupid", I mean.


#120649 01/21/04 12:53 AM
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And the southernmost continent is STILL Antarctica!


#120650 01/21/04 01:19 AM
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Isn't there a word to describe an error which becomes so common that it "wins" in the sense of taking over from correct usage? Besides "stupid", I mean.

Maybe not a single word, but a phrase. Modern English.


#120651 01/21/04 01:30 AM
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elision?


#120652 01/21/04 04:30 AM
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Narrowly defined, an elision occurs when a letter or syllable is omitted from the end of one word or the beginning of the next word in a phrase, such as "he's" for "he is." More broadly, however, an elision may be the omission or slurring of a letter or syllable anywhere in a word, as it is spoken. Not bad.

I was hoping for a more derogatory term, but I can live with elision.




#120653 01/21/04 06:58 AM
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>Anticlima(c)tic

Yep, that can be annoying, but I can top that one. Over the weekend, video footage was obtained of a species of bird recorded as extinct since 1856. The amateur ornithologist interviewed kept talking about how great it was, when species were becoming extinct every day, to see one come back from extinction. He used several variants on that basic theme, stating repeatedly that the bird was "no longer extinct." Visions of an avian Jurassic Park came to mind, alnog with an urge to explain to him what "extinct" means.


#120654 01/21/04 07:06 AM
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alnog with an urge to explain to him what "extinct" means.

What, by making him extinct? Get those fingers from around his throat immediately!

One of my pet hates in this area is "ecstatic" being pronounced as "estatic".


#120655 01/21/04 12:03 PM
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I can live with elision

That's good cause it'll always be with us. Of course it is only one of the natural processes that make up the change languages go through. Remember, not one Modern English word that has been used on this board has not been considered wrong at some time in its history.


#120656 01/21/04 01:17 PM
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Yes--one thing we humans are not is static, es-, ecs-, or otherwise! So why are we, as a species, so resistant to change? I am thinking of the how Beethoven's music was received by his peers.


#120657 01/21/04 01:17 PM
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That's true, it is a natural process. But if a word appears to be changing in a way that seems (to me) ugly, then I don't have to be a passive observer, I reserve the right to resist the change. Just call me Knutty .

Ed: darn, yuh got ahead by 30 seconds!


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