"meant to have"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

> > 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?
>
>
>Strange. I thought it might be a glitch, with the speaker getting
>entangled in his or her choice of verb. But there are a few examples out
>there where it means essentially the same as "is/are thought to have
>died".

Maybe an inept (hurried) translation of German "meinen" =
"think/opine/suppose" (or = "mean" depending on context)?

E.g.: according to my meager-and-mostly-forgotten German "Man meint, dass
..." might = "It is thought that ...". Please correct me if necessary.

A few of those Google hits suggest that this "mean" is used in English
meaning "think/opine/suppose". I think "mean" was so used in English in the
old days (OED seems to show this up to 17th century). Maybe it is still
usual in some dialect, but I don't think it would be usual in the news.
Maybe some of the Google hits are from German-speakers?

-- Doug Wilson


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