semantic drift: "disrupt"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Fri Jan 18 21:23:55 UTC 2008


The D.C. police are at the moment employing a bomb-squad robot called "Robocop" (maybe a trademark?) to investigate a suspicious vehicle. The police spokesperson is describing the
  procedure, which includes knocking out a window with a robotic arm, as "disrupting the vehicle."  She says too that, once it had broken its way inside, the robot could fire a stream of water "to further disrupt the vehicle."

  I'd have said "neutralize," but "disrupt" seems to be the term of art.

  JL



---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list