Re: lost linguistic battles

From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Fri Jun 20 2003 - 20:08:12 MDT

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    Damien Broderick wrote:
    > At 02:30 PM 6/20/03 +0100, Steve D wrote:
    >
    >
    >>Too bad Bill, looks like another battle has been lost. I fear I'll have to
    >>give up insisting that "aggravate" does not mean "irritate/annoy" as well.
    >>However I am still fighting the good fight against the confusing of "rebutt"
    >>with "refute" (a very important distinction) and (vainly I fear) of "flout"
    >>with "flaunt".
    >
    >
    > I think you're correct about `aggravate' being lost.
    >

     From dictionary.com:

    "Some people claim that aggravate can only mean “to make worse,” and not
    “to irritate,” on the basis of the word's etymology. But in doing so,
    they ignore not only an English sense in use since the 17th century, but
    also one of the original Latin ones. Sixty-eight percent of the Usage
    Panel approves of its use in 'It's the endless wait for luggage that
    aggravates me the most about air travel.'"

    -- 
    Brian Atkins
    Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
    http://www.singinst.org/
    


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