"atmospheric," n.

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Jun 27 17:58:20 UTC 2010


I suspect not, but since the specific reference didn't sink in, I can't be
certain.

JL

On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 1:09 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "atmospheric," n.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ....
> > "An element in the climate of political opinion."
> >
> > CNN's Cindy Crowley this morning referred to a poll number that was "not
> the
> > sort of atmospheric that Democrats like." (A close paraphrase.)
> >
> > Cf., of course, "statistic."
> --
>
> I suspect maybe "atmospheric" might be an error for "stratospheric [poll
> number]" meaning "very high [poll number]".
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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