"fact" = notion or idea that has not been established as a fact or is not a fact

[Wilson Gray]

Jonathan Lightner writes (wrote?):

"Prof. Nordstrom holds a doctorate in anthropology from Berkeley."

I thank whatever gods there be that the former University of California Farm
at Davisville has been formally separate from and independent of the
University of California at Berkeley since 1956.

-Wilson

On 4/29/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      "fact" = notion or idea that has not been established as a
> fact
>               or is not a fact
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I may have reported this very common SOTA perversion of sense and logic
> before, but here's an example that's hard to weasel out of:
>
>   1998 Carolyn Nordstrom "Deadly Myths of Aggression," in _Aggressive
> Behavior_  XXIV 152:  The people who inaugurate wars do not fight them,
> giving lie to the social fact that "wars explode."
>
>   Note too the form "give lie to."
>
>    Prof. Nordstrom holds a doctorate in anthropology from Berkeley.
>
>
>   JL
>
>
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