Author Says Bush and Blair Are Mangling English

[Ronald Kephart]

At 3:17 PM -0500 11/16/04, Harold F. Schiffman wrote:

>Author Says Bush and Blair Are Mangling English
>[...]
>Humphrys picks on Bush -- who once famously used the word
>"misunderestimate"...

There are so many really, really valid reasons to pick on, and indeed
even advocate for the impeachment of, Bush. For example, the
thousands dead in Iraq (he wrote, imitating Blair). But get your
knickers in a knot over "misunderestimate"? I'm sorry, but this just
doesn't fire up my moral outrage. Besides, it seems like a perfectly
understandable word to me: the underestimation was mismanaged,
inaccurately carried out, whatever. Doesn't this illustrate what
Hockett called the productivity design feature of language?

Ron