[Ads-l] suspect, adj.

[Jonathan Lighter]

>"You can't even step into the same river *once*!"

This is obviously true, since "same" implies that you've stepped into
"it"  before (assuming it's the "same" in the Heraclitian sense). Thus
it is a more exacting, yet essentially synonymous, statement of the
Heraclitian principle.


Most people, however, including Yours Truly, overlook the connotations
of "same."  In that case, the claim is a statement of "poetic truth"
alone. (I.e., "truthiness," not the real McCoy.)


On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 2:18 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 8:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> "Feeling suspicion; suspicious."
>>
>> Retired general on CNN:
>>
>> "I was suspect then, and I continue to be suspect."
>>
>
> Clearly, the OED is a Sisyphean effort. As a science-fiction author of the
> '50's once noted - or quoted; I'm not up to getting serious about the
> research, right now - "You can't even step into the same river *once*!"
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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