"select for"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hmmm. No "select against" either.

Maybe they're crypto-Creationists at Oxford.

JL

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "select for"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> Dig it: OED has no def. for this universally used Darwinian phrase.
>> I've always found it to be rather opaque: why are biological
>> characteristics selected "for" instead of "selected" or "selected for
>> preservation"?  Whenever I read it, I feel I'm missing something
>> crucial and subtle.
>>
> I assume that "select for" is used to allow for the reverse, "select
> against". (A hypothetical "select against preservation" seems ungainly,
> somehow.)
>
> Jim Parish
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org