Subject: ravish = 'to ravage'

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On  Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:52:26 –0400, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
wrote (in part): 

I believe it was Theodore Bernstein who alerted me to the fact that some
writers confuse use _ravish_ when they "mean" _ravage_. As I recall, the
horrible example involved locusts "ravishing" the landscape. ...
JL
..............
I swear this is true. When I was a graduate student in journalism at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s, we were asked to critique batches of small-town newspapers from around the state. I spotted this headline on a news item about an ocean liner, the Queen Elizabeth, which had caught fire and burned in Hong Kong harbor: 
QUEEN ELIZABETH RAVISHED 
I used the story as a usage example in my book Woe Is I. I think the newspaper was the Owatonna People’s Press, but it’s not digitized so I can’t confirm.  
Pat O’Conner

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