[Ads-l] Unusual "to qualfiy" -- "to characterize (or to accuse) as bad", rather than good?

[Joel Berson]

Anglade qualified the Thalys personnel behavior as “inhuman” and “terrible.”


In "French Actor Caught in Thalys Attack Offers Firsthand Account, Accuses Train Staff of "Inhuman" Behavior", by Jordan Mintzer, _The Hollywood Reporter_ (online).


A neutral "to qualify" is sanctioned by the OED in sense 1.a, "To describe or designate in a particular way; to characterize as something; to name", with quotations as recently as 2001.  And there is at least one quotation where the characterization is negative:


1919   J. Reed Ten Days that shook World iii. 64,   I qualify such acts of a Russian political party as acts of treason to Russia!


But nowadays, it seems to me, "to qualify" has a positive connotation, of achieving a level of competence, as in senses 4, 5, and 7.  (Or II, "To modify or moderate in some respect", as in senses 8 and 9; but that is not the meaning here.)


Note that the headline takes "qualified" to be "accused".


Joel

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