[Ads-l] skinback

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Fri Mar 13 11:46:12 UTC 2020


FWIW, here's a journalistic usage:

https://www.reuters.com/article/column-dcjohnston-murdoch/column-how-i-misread-news-corps-taxes-david-cay-johnston-idUSN1E76C25320110713
David Cay Johnston (July 13, 2011): "For the first time in my 45-year-old
career I am writing a skinback. That is what journalists call a retraction
of the premise of a piece, as in peeling back your skin and feeling the
pain."


On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 6:30 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Honestly, Wilson.  It clearly means "walkback" or (early ModE)
> "retraction."
>
> Next thing, you'll be using dated, arcane phrases like "short-arm."
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 5:53 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > "It is inconceivable to me that minutes after an Oval Office address
> ...
> >
> > I don't think that word means what you think it does.  Alas, far too
> > conceivable.
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 6:31 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > David Axelrod on CNN:
> > >
> > > "It is inconceivable to me that minutes after an Oval Office address in
> > the
> > > midst of a major crisis, that [sic] you have to engage in a series of
> > > skinbacks to correct what the nation just heard."
> > >
> > > Etymological comment gratuitous?
> > >
> > >
>

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