bailout/bale out; or: planes, boats, and MW

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> I was listening to the host of NPR's "Fresh Air" this afternoon at
> about 12:45 EST talking to Peter Sokolowski, described by her as the
> Editor at Large of the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, about (I
> think) its 10 words-of-the-year.  They were just speaking of
> "bailout", as in "rescue package for bankers, etc.", and he noted the
> origin in "bail out of an airplane".  She then commented that of
> course there is also "bail out a boat" (of course I didn't know how
> she was spelling either).
>
> Mr. Sokolowski did not then discuss the complexities of the two,
> "bale" vs. "bail".  (Which I believe were previously discussed here.)

And here:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1544/


--Ben Zimmer

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