travesty

[Michael Covarrubias]

On Jun3, 2010, at 9:55 AM, Rick Barr wrote:
>
> I hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but it would seem that the word
> travesty in these cases has absorbed the negative connotations of the very
> frequent phrase "travesty of justice." People seem to clip the final two
> words and retain the negative sense of the expression as a whole.
>
> On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 10:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Earlier today the President of Plaquemines Parish described the gushing oil
>> as "a tragedy and a travesty."  Later, on the History Channel's series
>> _America: The Story of Us_, Donald Trump forcefully described the 9/11
>> terrorist attacks as "a travesty."
>>
>> Roughly, "an outrageous happening."
>>
>> I've heard it a number of times before, but I can't say when.
>>
>> JL
>>


interesting flip on this one. a recent twitter post:

"An umpire blowing a call is not a "travesty." A UK taxi driver killing 12 or the nine people killed in the Gaza is."

looks like the writer assumes "travesty" was being used like "tragedy", and comments, attempting to ridicule the exaggerated claim, but perhaps missing the intended use to mean it was a sham.

michael

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