"tacit silence"

[Chris F Waigl]

Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      "tacit silence"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Oct 16, 2006, at 5:35 AM, Dan Lassiter wrote:
>
>
>> An headline from this weekend's New York Times:
>>
>> "Tacit silence on stem cell research in Missouri race" (I may have
>> the end a
>> bit wrong, but the tacit silence bit is the point)
>>
>> I got only 543 google hits for "tacit silence", not all of them
>> real and
>> mostly from blogs etc. Has anyone run into "tacit" in this meaning
>> in a
>> major source before?
>>
>
> what *is* the intended meaning here?
>
> arnold
>
FWIW, the title has been changed to "Missouri Candidates Step Lightly on
Stem Cell Measure" in the NYT
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/us/politics/15stem.html?em&ex=1161057600&en=10aa439d9d763f9e&ei=5087%0A).

====

In a race that appears to be a dead heat, the result has been an odd
sort of mutual quietness, where the opposing camps seem to agree that
the less said on the stump about stem cell research, the better.

"I've urged everyone to make those decisions on their own," Mr. Talent
said after the speech to the electricians, in Osage Beach, Mo., when
asked about the ballot measure. "I've tried not to make it political."

Ms. McCaskill denied shying from the issue but acknowledged it was not
part of her standard campaign speech.

"It's not that I'm ignoring it, but the stem cell issue usually comes up
in the context of question and answer," she said after a debate in
Clayton, Mo. "People are confused and want to talk about it."
====

Maybe some sort of tacit agreement to remain silent on the matter?

Chris Waigl

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