unfoil; annuls

[Laurence Horn]

On May 29, 2012, at 1:16 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> unloose
> 
> Wait, what?! Is it the claim that _unloose_ is *not* standard?!
> 
> Youneverknow.;-)

Not if George Campbell could help it (which he evidently couldn't):

The verb to unloose should analogically signify to tie, in like manner as to untie signifies to loose.  To what purpose is it, then, to retain a term, without any necessity, in a signification the reverse of that to which its etymology manifestly suggests?...All con­siderations of analogy, pro­priety, perspicuity, unite in persuading us to repudiate this preposterous application altogether.

                              (George Campbell (1776), Philosophy of Rhetoric, 335-36)



LH
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