journey
    Jonathan Lighter 
    wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
       
    Wed Jul 21 13:21:17 UTC 2010
    
    
  
OED includes this cliche' under 3b "fig., esp. the 'pilgrimage' or passage
through life."  But I think the def. needs to be tweaked to cover the media
throwaway uses like the following.
2010 _CNN Newsroom_ (July 25) (CNN TV): This is the story of the journey of
Shirley Sherrod....
It means "interesting life"  ("You've had quite a journey!") with no sense
of a "pilgrimage," which, of course, has a destination.  Today's "journeys"
are more interesting if undirected. No following "from...to" which would
make it more clearly figurative.  Note that "trip" is infrequently used this
way.
JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
    
    
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