"coincidental": another reversal?

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 19, 2011, at 8:12 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:

> Perhaps she was thinking of the "simultaneous" meaning of coincidental, and
> not the "accidental" meaning.
> DanG
>
Hard to know, although I think she was trying to convey that it was indeed accidental, although (more or less, but not deliberately so) simultaneous.

LH
>
> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 7:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      "coincidental": another reversal?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Tonight on ABC's World News, the (almost?) always carefully-spoken
>> Christiane Amanpour explained that the already "rattling nerves" in the
>> wake of Kim Jong Il's death were heightened when "The Pentagon confirmed
>> that North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles, although they don't
>> believe that there was anything coincidental about that--not deliberately
>> timed with this death."  She must have meant that the timing *was* (what
>> used to be called) entirely coincidental.  Not sure if this reflects an
>> unusual slip by Amanpour or an even more unusual meaning shift.
>>
>> LH
>>
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