[Ads-l] eerie

[Jonathan Lighter]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/jimmy-fallon-highlights-eerie-trump-114135026.html
:

"Jimmy Fallon made a joke on his show about a fake Trump supporter hoping
for a costly war and high gas prices, which now feels eerily relevant as
gas prices soar."

JL

On Thu, Apr 30, 2026 at 9:42 AM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> Yeah, when you first posted this, the use of "eerily" in "scene at the
> White House eerily calm at the moment" did not strike me as an odd
> usage, or one stretching/shifting its semantic field. I don't think it
> needs to be read as "oddly". Its use brings to mind that silence, calm,
> quiet as you're creeping around the haunted house, just before the jump
> scare (or just after). That's totally within "eerily" for me.
>
> (Now, is it odd or surprising for this administration? Yeah, sure; but I
> think that's an inference for the reader to make.)
>
> ---Amy West
>
> On 4/30/26 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:38:34 -0400
> > From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: eerie
> >
> > More like "oddly" than "surprisingly."
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 26, 2026 at 7:29 AM Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Now "eerily" is morphing into "surprisingly." I've read it and heard it
> >> many times over the past several years, but this one seems diagnostic:.
> >>
> >> MSNOW reports that the "scene at the White House [is] eerily calm at the
> >> moment."
> >>
> >> Scarily? Threateningly? Supernaturally?  How about just "weirdly" ? I
> >> don't think so. "Eerily" is being used a lot these days. "Eerie," not as
> >> much.
> >>
> >> It reminds me of the news fad, now somewhat subsided, for using
> >> "ironically" whenever possible to mean "surprisingly" and
> "coincidentally."
> >>
> >> And while I'm bellyaching like some aged and crotchety prescriptivist,
> for
> >> several years at least the same news media seem incapable of  saying
> "not"
> >> without tacking on the word "necessarily," no matter what.
> >>
> >>   JL
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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