[Ads-l] infantry (count noun)

[Dan Goncharoff]

Speaking of misused military terms, I have noticed the upcoming election
campaign described as "scorched earth".
On May 17, 2016 8:14 AM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe, but Kaufman is a professor of _literature_.

JL


On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 8:03 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> Looks like a cut and paste error to me. The line may have originally read
"by a Russian infantry unit," but when "unit" was cut, he forgot about the
article.
>
> It's definitely an odd use of ambush, which is attack by laying in wait.
You can't ambush a fixed position.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 7:59 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] infantry (count noun)
>
> OED has one ex., from 1605 - which it neglects to define or describe.
>
> 2014 Andrew D. Kaufman _Give War and Peace a Chance_  (N.Y.: Simon &
> Schuster) 210  : A fortified French encampment being ambushed at dawn by
a Russian infantry in the middle of war is not, and never will be, a magic
kingdom.
>
> Prof. Kaufman is "an internationally recognized Russian literature
scholar at the University of Virginia...[and] a featured Tolstoy expert at
Oprah.com."
>
> P.S.: This use of _ambush_, v., isn't in OED at all. I confess I can't
tell whether it sounds right or wrong: 'to attack by stealth, as under
cover of darkness.'
>
> P.P.S.: OED also lacks the popular journalistic  "ambush interview" (GB:
1981).
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
truth."
>
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>
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> 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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