refute = 'repudiate'; catastrophic = 'extraordinarily severe'

[Jonathan Lighter]

I don't say that "catastrophic" is "wrong" (where do people get these
ideas?), only that it seems unusual in the phrase "catastrophic pain," and
that lexicographers and semanticists may be interested in that observation.

JL

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 1:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: refute = 'repudiate'; catastrophic = 'extraordinarily
> severe'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tweetum breve, litterae longae.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Ben Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:
>
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: refute = 'repudiate'; catastrophic = 'extraordinarily
> > severe'
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >
> > > 2010 S. Palin in _New Yorker_ (Aug. 16) 27: Peaceful New Yorkers, pls
> > refute
> > > the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @
> > Twin
> > > Towers site is too raw, too real.
> >
> > Why not just cite the tweet itself (from July 18)?
> >
> > http://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/18855185436
> >
> > via:
> >
> >
> http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/refudiate-how-to-miscreate-a-word/
> >
> > cited by me here:
> > http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2360/
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ben Zimmer
> > http://benzimmer.com/
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org