a word you just shouldn't use

[Jonathan Lighter]

Past time to retire this one, which is just as much a jaw-dropper as it was
the other time I encountered it:

2006 Torkel Brekke, ed. _ The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations: A
Comparative Perspective_  (N.Y.: Routledge) ix: In my view, scholarship on
the ethics of war needs to include other non-Western civilizations in order
too reach the broadest possible fundament for cross-cultural comparison.

That one other time, about fifteen years ago, led me to inquire of a more
senior scholar in a different discipline what he thought of the usage, which
appeared in a rather similar sentence.

Incredulous, he exclaimed, "But that means ASS!!"

Prof. Brekke was ill served by his copy-editor.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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