McCainian "oversight"

[Dave Wilton]

I've heard other politicians use "oversight" this way as well over the last
couple of years. It's always used in the specific context of Congressional
supervision of the bureaucracy and administration, not for supervisory roles
within the bureaucracy (for which the usual verb "oversee" might be
applied).


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 8:23 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: McCainian "oversight"

In the first presidential debate, McCain used "oversight" as a
transitive verb, meaning "to provide oversight for" -- he referred to
Obama's chairmanship of "a committee that oversights NATO." (OED3 only
has a rare intransitive sense of the verb, "to make a mistake through
negligence or omission." )

McCain has used "oversight" in the same way a few times earlier in
this campaign season:

---
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/01/sitroom.02.html
CNN, Apr. 1, 2008
I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights all sectors,
practically, of our economy.
---
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/17/acd.02.html
CNN, July 17, 2008
He has been the chairman of the committee of the subcommittee that
oversights NATO operations. Afghanistan, we obviously know, about NATO
involvement.
---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603
226.html
Washington Post, Sep. 16, 2008
I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights every part of
our economy.
---
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Sep17/0,4670,McCainChange,00.html
AP, Sep. 17, 2008
That's the committee that oversights our economy - transportation,
science, telecommunications, airlines - all of the factors that drive
our economy.
---

And he used it back in the 2000 primary debates:

---
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E1DD123BF934A35752C0A9669
C8B63
New York Times, Jan. 7, 2000
I think that's appropriate in my role as chairman of the committee
that oversights that bureaucracy, which by the way, is extremely
difficult for most people to deal with.
---


--Ben Zimmer

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