"normal" people

[Jonathan Lighter]

I have heard this use of "normal" for "ordinary" so many times it almost sounds normal. But Schorr seems far older (i.e., "way older") than the typical user to me.

  I use "regular" in a similar way, but only as a joke.

  JL
Alison Murie <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Alison Murie
Subject: "normal" people
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Daniel Schorr, talking to Scott Simon this morning on NPR, about the chaos
in Iraq said that it was hard for "normal people" to make sense of it.
Something about "normal" fell oddly on the ear. Did he mean ordinary
citizens stateside? Are there *abnormal* people who do comprehend it? I
felt he was aiming at another word, but I can't think what it might have
been.
AM

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