rigor/vigor confusion

[Baker, John]

        The arbitration award is available at
http://www.usantidoping.org/files/active/arbitration_rulings/Landis%20Fi
nal%20%2820-09-07%29%20%283%29.pdf, and the quoted passage (from
paragraph 311) is accurately quoted.  The majority arbitrators are
Patrice Brunet, Attorney at Law, Chairman, and Prof. Richard H. McLaren,
C.Arb., Barrister.  They appear to be Canadian.  I believe Brunet is a
French-speaking lawyer in Quebec, so English may be his second language.
Brunet was the chairman, so he may have written the award, but it is
also possible that they split it up.

        I don't know if "vigor" is an eggcorn or a typo, but either
seems plausible.  Note that, in handwriting, lower-case r can look very
like lower-case v (in which case this would be a write-o, I guess).


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Erik Hoover
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 11:01 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: rigor/vigor confusion

For the purposes of cutting and pasting, I ganked my quote from the Wall
Street Journal online edition.
I have not seen an official copy of the panel decision.

Erik

On Sep 20, 2007, at 10:12 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: rigor/vigor confusion
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> I heard the report too, but I thought the phrase was just NPR's usual
> inept reporter's goof.  Was this an actual quote from the panel's
> report?  If so, the spelling of the noun "practises" is also
> interesting.  Were the panel members L2 speaker/writers?
>
> At 09:28 PM 9/20/2007, you wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Erik Hoover <grinchy at GRINCHY.COM>
>> Subject:      rigor/vigor confusion
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> Cyclist Floyd Landis, accused of doping violations in the 2005 Tour
>> de France, received bad news today from an arbitration panel.  So it
>> goes.
>>
>> What I found interesting was the apparent error in this phrase from
>> the ruling:
>>
>> "The Panel finds that the practises of the Lab in training its
>> employees appears to lack the vigor the Panel would expect in the
>> circumstances given the enormous consequences to athletes..."
>>
>> Oops?
>>
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