decline

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 27, 2014, at 12:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Yes.
> 
> But "declined" sounds so much more polite.
> 
> Like when the machine "declines" your credit card.
> 
> JL

Exactly, with an implicit "Thanks anyway".

LH

> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 11:01 AM, David Daniel <david at coarsecourses.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       David Daniel <david at COARSECOURSES.COM>
>> Subject:      decline
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> From CNN:
>> "In the case of this week's United inflight battle, the flight attendant
>> reportedly told the man to remove the Knee Defender device, but he
>> declined." Shouldn't that be "refused"?
>> DAD
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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