"terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily

[James Smith]

I've always taken "terminally" as "fatal"; if I'm terminally stupid, its going to end up killing me; if She's terminally beautiful, it's going to end up killing me; either way, I lose.


James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.


--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Damien Hall <djh514 at YORK.AC.UK> wrote:

> From: Damien Hall <djh514 at YORK.AC.UK>
> Subject: "terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 12:51 PM
> 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
>
> Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
>     (mobile) +44 (0)771 853 5634
> Fax  +44 (0)1904 432673
>
> BORDERS AND IDENTITIES CONFERENCE, JAN 2010:
> http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb/bic2010/
>
> http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/people/pages/hall.htm
>
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