"terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily

[Damien Hall]

JL quoted Brian Hanley this:

'2008  Brian Hanley  _Planning for Conflict in the Twenty-First Century_
(Greenwood) 126: Another illustration of the terminally insidious impact on
French society of the Great War.'

and said it was a straight-faced use of _terminally_ to mean 'utterly',
'extraordinarily'. But do we know that for sure? The context doesn't make
it clear, to me at least, since arguably the Great War _did_ have a
terminal impact on many aspects of French (high) society. I'm no French
historian, but I believe it's true that the Great War made France take a
major step away from being ruled by its aristocracy (even though it had
been a republic since 1875).

If we accept this, it is possible that this _terminally_ could be taken in
its literal meaning. We then have to imagine French society being eaten
away from the inside, or something, in order for _insidious_ to have the
desired effect; but that's not much of a leap to make. Is it?

Damien

--
Damien Hall

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
UK

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