Fatals (noun)

[Chris Waigl]

Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU> wrote:

> Today's Chicago Tribune has a headline that reads "White [Sec of
> State] says teen fatals a priority". The article is about teen
> driving fatalities. I have done a quick Google search (for English
> results only) and, leaving aside references to The Fatals (a band?)
> and to Femme Fatals (another band? the same band), the hits all seem
> to be related to traffic fatalities--and the word appears in
> headlines--not in the body of the text (or, in one case, a link at
> the top of the page--the actual headline has fatalities).

This reminds me of a noun I suddenly keep coming across: _creative_, in
online advertising. Not in the sense that AHD4 has ("One who displays
productive originality: _the creatives in the advertising department_."
http://www.answers.com/topic/creative), but denoting the actual finished
ad, as delivered by the designers. I couldn't find a Google search that
filters this particular usage, but this one: http://tinyurl.com/k3wzw
brings up a number of examples.

A cousin of _narrative_.

Chris Waigl
currently following an Onboarding Plan (sic!)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org