Flush Out/Flesh Out

[sagehen]

>        A Google search for "flush out" gave this blog entry,
>http://www.startupnation.com/blog/entry.asp?ENTRY_ID=124, as the second
>choice.  It seems that a distressingly large number of people who
>commented on this blog entry do not know the meaning of "flush out,"
>which means to drive from a hiding place into the open, as a dog flushes
>out quail.  Many of them think it means to purge, like the flush of a
>toilet (and if enough think that, I suppose it will come to have that
>meaning).  Many simply asserted that "flesh out" is always correct.  Is
>this because they live in places where people do not hunt birds?  Like
>politics, it seems to be an area where lack of knowledge is no
>impediment to providing an opinion.
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Benjamin Zimmer
>Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 2:59 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Campaign to add "concept" as a verb in M-W
>
>> 1. A process whereby ideas are generated for the purpose of creatively
>
>> solving a problem: "The team set aside some time for concepting in
>> order to flush out some plausible directions."
>
>So, in addition to concepting pointless dictionary petitions, creatives
>are also busy concepting eggcorns...
>
>http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/349/flush/
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wonderful!
To get back to the "concept" concept. I suppose it must have been some such
notion that put the "Concept Series" in wiggly script on the console of an
electric stove we had some years ago.  I was always puzzled by what it was
supposed to mean.   Were we expected to go: " Oh, wow, 'Concept
Series'...we gotta have one of those!" ...? (We didn't, since we didn't
choose it; it was handed on to us by someone getting a newer stove.)
AM

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