[Ads-l] "... down a vicious cycle ..."

[Laurence Horn]

> On Sep 11, 2015, at 7:09 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> From a U of Calif alumni bulletin.
> 
> I can recall the days when the phrase was,
> 
> "in a vicious circle."

But can you recall the early days of "vicious cycle", per the OED?

_vicious cycle_  n. a sequence of reciprocal cause and effect in which two or more elements intensify and aggravate each other, leading inexorably to a worsening of the situation; = vicious circle at sense 9.

1846   Times 1 July 4/4   Such a vicious cycle of alternate triumphs and depressions will no longer be tolerated now.
1922   Gen. Electric Rev. June 333/1   We hear a great deal about vicious cycles, but here is a virtuous cycle.

LH
> 
> -- 
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
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