coincidentally = ironically = also

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 2/2/07, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>
> "Bushista" is an interesting expression.  It comes of course from Hispanoamerica,
> where it is used in "Zapatista" and "Sandinista" and others that I can't think of at
> the moment to mean "armed follower of", with, I am fairly certain. the connotation
> of "left-wing guerilla"  (e.g. those oppossed to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua were
> not the "contradistas" or "Somozistas" but simply the "contras".)
> Therefore you connote that George W. Bush is the leader of a left-wing guerilla
> movement!

Uh-huh. And "fashionistas" are left-wing fashion guerrillas?

> >From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >This follows the well-known rule that a word sounds fancier with extra
> >syllables in front. Cf. "epicenter" = 'center', "penultimate" =
> >'ultimate', "quintessential" = 'essential', "juxtaposition" =
> >'position', etc.
>
> I might object that your antepenultimate example is incorrect, and suggest that
> if you don't know the difference between "penultimate" and "ultimate" that you,
> hmmm, do not try to write metrical poetry.

This is precisely my point. People often use "penultimate" as merely a
more dressed-up (or emphatic) version of "ultimate", just as
"coincidentally" seemed to be a fancier way of saying "incidentally"
in the original quote.

Here are some recent "penultimate" = 'ultimate' exx. from the
blogosphere (note the explicit confusion in the last one):

-----
http://saori-kun.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!EE00F1A2C37E1B9E!702.entry
Going to the opposite extreme, there's Jack, the penultimate nice guy.
-----
http://noguts.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!7C2DBD94700B33D!283.entry
My Dad is the penultimate hunter, spending much of October through
January tracking the wary beasts through "Penn's woods" in both Potter
and Lehigh counties.
-----
http://portland.metblogs.com/archives/2007/01/the_return_of_i.phtml
Darkbuster is the penultimate Boston punk band and they are making a
big name for themselves.
-----
http://legionofdoom.cheeksofgod.com/?p=407
This one takes a big step up, largely leaving the political
grandstanding aside for a disappointingly minor fight but a solid
build-up to the major fight to come in the penultimate (that means
last, right?) issue.
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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