delibility

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:15 AM -0500 11/16/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 11/15/2009 10:58 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>From one of the CBS announcers of today's Jets-Jaguars football game,
>>after Jets' quarterback Mark Sanchez is sacked in the first quarter
>>and goes down hard:
>>
>>"Those type of hits leave an indelible--and sometimes a *delible* mark."
>>
>>Evident a delible mark is like an indelible one only more so.
>
>I wonder if he meant a mental, subconscious imprint -- one that a
>quarterback, particularly a rookie, as Sanchez is, will long remember
>-- in contrast to the physical, visible mark.
>
>Of course we all know that's not quite what "delible" means -- viz.
>OED.  Unless the speaker had in mind that the remembrance and
>associated anxiety would fade eventually.

I don't think so--it seemed clear that he (Dan Fouts, former QB
himself) regarded "delible" as a higher-scale item than "indelible".
If he'd said "...but sometimes it's a delible mark" or "but maybe
(just) a delible one", I'd guess the evanescent reading.  But with
the "and" and the stress on "delible", that reading is unlikely.  (I
noticed the "those type of hits" too--not that it's quirky, I
probably say it myself, it's just one of those situations when
speakers never quite know what to do about the plural, agreement,
etc.:  that type of hits?  those type of hits?  that type of hit?)

LH

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