CNN follies

[Jonathan Lighter]

Correct!  But don't forget "This [news] report contains scenes of a
graphic nature" and CDs labeled "Explicit lyrics."

If "ancestor" can come to mean "descendant" as well, why shouldn't
"amputee" come to mean "a person born without one or more limbs"? Not
that I'm endorsing either development, but my lack of endorsement
won't stop anybody.

So...what precisely do "graphic" and "explicit" mean in the CNN sentences?

JL



On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:56 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: CNN follies
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> You can thank the overuse of "graphic violence" for the first one. The
> second one is contracted from "chronically ill veterans". There is no
> excuse for the third and the fourth may well be avoidance of the same use
> of "graphic".
>
> VS-)
>
> On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Spot and define the strange item in each sentence, all heard today on CNN:
>>
>> "He witnessed a graphic sexual act betwen Sandusky and a ten-year-old boy."
>>
>> "It's mainly the chronic veterans that are homeless."
>>
>> "He's a congenital amputee, born without arms or legs."
>>
>> "He saw an explicit and horrible act."
>>
>> ("A graphic act" was used at least twice, many hours apart, by
>> different speakers.)
>>
>> JL
>>
>
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