"casualty"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Unscrupulous sources may adjust their estimates or reports of casualties ad
lib, but, AFAIK, not even the Nazi propaganda machine redefined the  actual
meaning  of "casualty" in this way. And why bother? It's easier just to make
up numbers.
I believe that the principal explanation is simple confusion combined with a
desire to make things seem as awful as possible.

Garson's ad-hoc riddle is perfect. I can't wait to try it on somebody.

JL


On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 10:01 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "casualty"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10/13/2010 09:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >2. "popular" usage (as in the Speer/ Hitler case) applies the plural only
> to
> >the dead.  To take an example I've encountered more than once, the first
> day
> >of the battle of the Somme is accurately said to have cost the British
> Army
> >nearly 60,000 casualties, which includes about 20,000 killed.  This is
> >frequently misinterpreted and rephrased as "60,000 deaths."  Similarly, I
> >have heard it said that the U.S. suffered 58,000 "casualties" during the
> >Vietnam War.  But the actual number of casualties was far higher than
> that.
> >I have heard that the U.S. has suffered "4,000 casualties in Iraq."  The
> >real number is, again, far higher.
>
> This, of course, may be due to the military's desire to minimize the
> number of casualties ... to "our" side.  Or critics' desire to
> maximize the number of casualties to "our" side.  Or to simple confusion.
>
> Joel
>
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