tipping point

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

article by Henry Chu, distributed by the Los Angeles Times, on Big Ben's tilting reads:

<quote>
The tilt (0.26 degrees northwest) lies at the tipping point, as it were, at wheich the lean becomes visible to the naked eye...
</quote>

The tipping point is the tilt beyond which Big Ben's tower falls over.  I say that even the "as it were" caveat does not justify using "tilting point" to mean "first visible tilt", but who listens to me?

    - Jim Landau

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org