"meant to have"

[Jonathan Lighter]

So bizarre that if it's genuine and used on the Beeb, my head is spinning !

  JL

sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: sagehen
Subject: "meant to have"
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Heard just now from BBC "The World" (via PRI):
In a news account of the accident sustained by the magnetic train in
Germany, the newsreader said that x number of people (15?) "are meant to
have died" ! (By design!?) UK English uses this where on this side we
say "supposed to" in the sense of "ought to." But "supposed to" could
also mean "thought to" and perhaps that's where this bizarre use went
astray. Or am I wrong in thinking this bizarre?
AM

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