"terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily

[Geoffrey Nathan]

While I am relying solely on my intuitions on the subject (something no responsible linguist would do :-) ), I agree with Victor that I find no sense of death involved with phrases such as 'terminally stupid', 'terminally weird' etc.  Just a sense of being 'beyond help', 'irretrievably', and so on.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

----- "Victor" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> From: "Victor" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:52:11 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: "terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I find it interesting that people are running with the narrow meaning
> of
> "terminally" as "leading to death", when there is a perfectly good
> meaning of "terminal" as "at the end" or "at the limit" (e.g.,
> "terminal
> velocity" obviously has nothing to do with death). Also, the meaning
> of
> the "train terminal" has evolved to mean something more than just
> "end
> station" and now means pretty much ANY station, but the original
> meaning
> also implies "at the end" (although, in this case, for a noun). So I
> am
> puzzled why people are stuck on the death-related definitions when
> perfectly reasonable alternatives for reanalysis are already
> available
> and have been available long before "terminally ill" became a
> euphemism
> for "dying".
>
> But even if we take up the medical sense of "terminally" (as in
> "terminally ill"), there is yet another alternative reanalysis. It's
> not
> just that someone's terminal condition results in death, but s/he is
> also "beyond help". In this sense, all the "terminally X" conditions
> are
> "beyond help". Someone who is "terminally stupid" cannot be helped
> and/or cured of being stupid--I suppose, s/he will also take the
> condition to his grave, but there is NO implication that the
> condition
> will CAUSE his death.
>
> There seems to be a recency effect problem here--and it's not just
> people are trying to make death-related jokes on the subject.
>
>     VS-)
>
> Amy West wrote:
> > This puts me in mind of the "terminally stupid" phrase that I hear
> > sometimes. There the use of "terminally" makes sense to me as the
> > implication is that the person/act is so stupid that it will cause
> > terminaton of the person's life.
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
> >
> >> Date:    Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:51:34 -0400
> >> From:    Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject: "terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily
> >>
> >> Not in OED but common in humorous and semi-humorous speech for a
> long time
> >> (30 years?).
> >>
> >> The first time I've encountered it used with a straight face:
> >>
> >> 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.
> >>
> >> Professor Hanley, who holds an M. Litt. from Oxford University,
> teaches at
> >> the U.S. Air Force Academy.
> >>
> >> JL
>
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