unwittingly

[Jonathan Lighter]

I guessed right the first time, but it's a bad headline because I had
to guess. The specificity of "driver" seems to indicate that the
rescuer's earlier role is more significant than it is.

Victor's "unknowingly" would be better, but not quite good enough.

Perhaps you just can't be clear about the irony in six words. Unless
you leave out the eye-catching drowning angle: "Man Unknowingly Saves
Family Friend."

Maybe they should have stuck with the unambiguous subhead: "'God
Provides Everything,' Man Says."

Oops. Not news.

JL



On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: unwittingly
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2/19/2012 07:25 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>I first saw the headline and it puzzled me a bit.
>>
>>http://www.wisn.com/video/30483779/detail.html
>>Driver Unwittingly Rescues Friend From Drowning
>>
>>
>>What does that headline mean to you? Given all the options, my first
>>reaction was, (1) did he not know he was saving someone? Then came the
>>secondary thought--or (2) did he not that the person he was rescuing was
>>a friend?
>>
>>It turns out, the correct interpretation is (2).
>>
>>>A driver saves a young man who turns out to be a family friend.
>>
>>Maybe I am reading too much into this ambiguity--I'm sure, Ron Butters
>>will think so. Nonetheless, I wanted to share it.
>
> Nah -- it means he did it in some stupid, risky way (without
> wits).  (Either that, or somebody mangled -- or redacted? -- a word
> meaning "reluctantly".)
>
> "Unknowingly" is surely available here.
>
> Joel
>
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