The current obsession with "Gone Missing"

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jun 7, 2009, at 5:53 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 6/7/2009 07:47 AM, Robert Hartwell Fiske wrote:
>> "Gone" or "went" missing is dreadfully popular today. Everyone from
>> reporters on "CNN" to detectives (or their writers) on "Without a
>> Trace" now prefer
>> it.
>
> Did it become prevalent in English at the time of the "disappeared"
> of South American dictatorships?

no.  see my previous postings.  its spread in the U.S. seems to be
relatively recent, though.

joel then goes on to say some sensible things about meaning and to
express doubts about Fiske's claim that "go missing" is driving out
the alternatives.  i too doubt this.  i suspect that this impression
(and the idea that there is a "current obsession" with the expression)
is an instance of the frequency illusion: people notice most of the
occurrences that come past them (because the idiom strikes them as
odd) and don't notice occurrences of the alternatives.

arnold

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