another reversal

[Charles C Doyle]

Somewhat in the "archaic" sense of 'suspect' (OED doubt v.6b).

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Victor Steinbok [aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 9:46 AM


I was browsing some archived articles and came across this:

> Another question surrounds the issue of volunteers for the Games.
> Romney has said it was never certain that the Games would attract a
> sufficient number of volunteers. ... But many Salt Lake officials say
> they never doubted that Utah, with its public-spirited culture, would
> fail to produce a large corps of volunteer workers. It did: 25,000 of
> them.
[ROMNEY OVERSTATES RESCUE OF GAMES RECORDS INDICATE FINANCES WERE
STRONG: [THIRD EDITION] Boston Globe [Boston, Mass] 31 Mar 2002: .1. ]
ProQuest

"Never doubted that Utah would fail to produce...", to my ear, sounds as
if they expected NOT to get enough volunteers. But the intent is clearly
the opposite--they "never doubted" that "Utah would produce".

     VS-)

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