The new (old?) "specialize

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/21/2011 05:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Joel must be another great mind, because I was thinking much the same thing
>earlier this week.

Of course.

>A local merchant (or perhaps a professional, I can't recall) boasted on
>TV that he "specialized" in X, even though it was perfectly apparent that
>his business or office did a whole lot of Y, Z, and A as well.
>
>I agree that this use of nonexclusive _specialize_ ('to deal in') has been
>around for many years, but I can't say just when I began to notice it.
>
>An older example. My optometrist also owns an opticians' office. Since I
>began visiting him about 1995, his stationery has read "Specialists in
>Contact Lenses."  Yet the office also offers a wide assortment of eyeglass
>frames (complete with prescription lenses, of course).

These two examples seem less ... what? oxymoronic? ... because there
are other subclasses that the "specialist" does *not* claim to
specialize in --  for example, the specialist in contact lenses
didn't say he was a specialist also in eyeglasses and their lenses.

Joel

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