apocryphal = archetypal? unbelievable?

[Jonathan Lighter]

>From February 2009 [
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=164663&page=3]:

 "Then there is the drama: like Princess Diana her story is almost
apocryphal in its glamourous tragedy. Simple girl made good, now she is
dying tragically."

 Archetypal?  Unbelievable?   Google "almost/ nearly apocryphal" for more
interesting exx., at least one of which really does seem to mean
"Apocalyptic."

JL

On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 10:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: apocryphal = archetypal? unbelievable?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So, Larry, you're saying that in this sentence "apocryphal" is replaceable
> by "too good to be true"?
>
> I think "too good to be true" is even more of a stretch than
> something catachrestic like "archetypal."
>
> Having seen the movie (and read Beaumont's article) a number of times, I
> don't think "apocalyptic" fits the context at all.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 10:50 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: apocryphal = archetypal? unbelievable?
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 9:35 PM -0500 2/7/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >At least that's what it looks like:
> > >
> > >1971 Roger A. Beaumont  "Images of War" in _Military Affairs_ (Feb.) 6:
> >  [A]
> > >whole series of films came out of Hollywood [in 1941]...generally
> disposed
> > >to American's [sic] girding its psychological loins for the coming shock
> > of
> > >battle...[including] "Sergeant York," the almost apocryphal story of a
> > >pacifist turned war hero.
> > >At the time of writing, Prof. Beaumont was "Associate Director of the
> > Center
> > >for Advanced Study in Organization Science and Assistant Professor of
> > >Organization Science at the University of Wisconsin, University
> Extension,
> > >Milwaukee."
> > >
> > >Much as I'd like to believe it means "apocryphal," I just can't do it.
> > >
> > >
> > I'll take the devil's advocate position.  The sense is it's *almost*
> > too good to be true, truth being stranger than fiction, etc. etc.,
> > and since "too good to be true" = apocryphal, there you go.  QED and
> > all that.
> >
> > LH
> >
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