"nearly" - approaching something from above

[Jonathan Lighter]

I'm with you.

I've noticed this a number of times in the past year.

JL

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "nearly" - approaching something from above
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Facebook shares fell nearly [no, wait for the next one] 4 percent on
> Wednesday to $20.88 -- nearly half of what they were worth when the
> company went public on May 17."  And later in the article, "At
> $20.88, it has nearly lost half its value."  NYTimes, today.
>
> The price the article is comparing to is $38 a share, so it has lost
> slightly less than half its value.
>
> The middle "nearly" of these three is jarring.  To me, "nearly"
> means approaching a number from less than that number.  The OED
> definitions do not seem to have a directional sense.
>
> Joel
>
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