"war with words"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Jon is correct about the illogic, but then, there's quite a bit about English that's illogical, e.g. "go bananas" (crazy), "many a" ("many a student will flunk Physics"; "many" is a plural and should not go with the singular "a"), "make with the jokes" (why "with" here? and then why not also "make with the remarks"?), etc. etc. etc.

G. Cohen

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On Feb. 01, 2014 Jonathan Lighter wrote:

Yahoo! news headline:

Magic Johnson calls off his needless, one-sided war with words with Lakers
coach Mike D'Antoni.

It's a kind of "war" that uses words as "weapons." The absurd "war of
words," said by old people, means that the words "belong to" the war. Which
is just so bogus and illogical.

JL

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