considered | concerted effort

[Jonathan Lighter]

My guess is that it's a stupidism for "concerted."  I've heard it frequently.

  JL

James Knight <jlk at INTERISLAND.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: James Knight
Subject: considered | concerted effort
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In today's LA Times, quoting Gen. WB Caldwell on the increased number
of attacks on US forces:

"There has been a much more considered effort to specifically target
coalition and Iraqi security forces,"

"considered effort" is everywhere (not, however in the ECDB or ADS-L
archives, as far as I can tell) going as far back as my meager
resources would indicate (1980). Does anyone have an early cite?

Excluding exx using "ill-considered..." and "well-considered...", I'd
guess "considered effort" is an easy slip for "concerted effort". Or
do we assume users actually intended the shift.

-James K. (not a trained lexicographer, but long time lurker on this list)

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



---------------------------------
Get your email and see which of your friends are online - Right on the  new Yahoo.com

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