"casualty"

[Garson O'Toole]

The passage uses the term "casualties" as a synonym for "dead
causalities". I think that Jon finds this "very misleading and to be
deplored".
The use of "casualties" with this constrained meaning is non-ambiguous
in this example because the previous sentence says "worthy monument to
our dead". It does not say "worthy monument to our dead and wounded".

I am reminded of this riddle:
Question: A planes crashes on the US-Canada border. Where are the
survivors buried?
Answer: Survivors are not buried.

Here is an similar riddle I just constructed (or remembered).
Question: A planes crashes on the US-Canada border. One of the
casualties is not buried for more than 50 years. Why not?


On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 8:17 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "casualty"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jon,
>
> Doesn't sense 2.c. in OED correspond to the meaning you are referring to?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 3:18 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "casualty"
>
> OED does not recognize the usage, very misleading and to be deplored on that
> basis, that equates "casualty" with "person killed."
>
> Here is a perfect example. Canetti quotes Albert Speer, who was quoting
> Hitler from memory.  I don't know the denotation of the translated German
> word, but English is English:
>
> 1979 Elias Canetti _The Conscience of Words_ (N.Y.: Seabury Press) 153: That
> will at least be a worthy monument to our dead in the World War. The name of
> every one of our 1,800,000 casualties will be carved in granite!
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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