liften/lighten

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jan 23, 2010, at 2:17 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> I had to do a double-take when I saw the headline. Initially, I
> thought
> it was "lighten", which is what the page says now. But it seems more
> likely (to me) that the original intent was to "lift" the mood, not to
> "lighten" it. Which makes me wonder how the mistake came about. Google
> News still has "liften" in the links and also finds it through search.
>
> http://bit.ly/6x8ddX
> Wayne Rooney's four goals liften mood among angry Manchester United
> fans

as far as i can tell, the OED doesn't have "to liften" 'to lift', but
there are a moderate number of hits, many of considerable vintage but
some recent, for it (once you exclude the occurrences of "to liften"
that are really "to listen").

pretty much an inevitable development, i'd guess, but i hadn't seen/
heard it before, so far as i know.

arnold

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