status quo = 'situation'

[Dan Goncharoff]

How about a contrast to either side winning?
DanG

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 11:18 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      status quo = 'situation'
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> Or maybe 'long-term situation.'  Truly, who can say?:
>
> 2011 Reuters  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110318/bs_nm/us_markets_oil(March
> 18): "We may be facing the possibility of an entrenched status quo between
> pro and anti Gaddafi groups," said Harry Tchilinguirian, analyst at BNP
> Paribas.
>
> Though OED defines "status quo" as "the existing state of affairs," it
> usually implies a contrast of that state with a different one.
> In the ex. above, there's no contrast that I can see.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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