Has the meaning of _apologist_ changed?

[Jonathan Lighter]

>the meaning of a word in a
language is controlled by the Yahoos among its speakers.

Gray's Law.

JL



On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 9:21 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Has the meaning of _apologist_ changed?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1/19/2012 01:09 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>>On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 11:06 PM, Garson O'Toole
>><adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Of course, many individuals concerned with verbal precision would
>> reject using "apologist" as a synonym for
>> > "apologizer".
>>
>>Clearly, such individuals are fighting a losing battle against
>>Tweedles both -Dum and -Dee. After all, the meaning of a word in a
>>language is controlled by the Yahoos among its speakers.
>>
>>Prescriptivism sucks!
>
> The OED's definition of "apologist" is, in toto:  "One who apologizes
> for, or defends by argument; a professed literary champion."
>
> I think they were right in moving to the A's!  :-)  The absence of an
> object for the preposition "for" (if not also for the "by") leaves
> unstated what it is that an apologist is apologizing for.  So could
> it not mean the same as "apologizer"?  And I note under "apologizer"
> the complete definition is "One who apologizes (in modern usage for a
> fault or offence; in early use = apologist n.)."  Also, here the
> object of the "for" is stated.
>
> Joel
>
> Joel
>
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