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The Other Fran
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:37 am
Post subject: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of "creditable"
information about a terrorist threat against targets in Australia. I do
hope the information is meritworthy, but I suspect he meant to claim
that it was reliable. Then again, I suppose meritworthy information
would be reliable, so perhaps the usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
TOF
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Raymond S. Wise
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:55 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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The Other Fran wrote:
| Quote: | According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of "creditable"
information about a terrorist threat against targets in Australia. I do
hope the information is meritworthy, but I suspect he meant to claim
that it was reliable. Then again, I suppose meritworthy information
would be reliable, so perhaps the usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
TOF
|
The sense "Worthy of credit or belief ; credible."--as *The Century
Dictionary* puts it--was the first meaning of the word "creditable."
MWCD11 dates the word (and thus, that sense) to 1526. The Century and
the 1913 Webster's Revised and Unabridged show that sense as being
obsolete, but MWCD11 shows it as currently in use. So it's a revived
usage.
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com |
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Raymond S. Wise
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:01 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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Raymond S. Wise wrote:
| Quote: | The Other Fran wrote:
According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of "creditable"
information about a terrorist threat against targets in Australia. I do
hope the information is meritworthy, but I suspect he meant to claim
that it was reliable. Then again, I suppose meritworthy information
would be reliable, so perhaps the usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
TOF
The sense "Worthy of credit or belief ; credible."--as *The Century
Dictionary* puts it--was the first meaning of the word "creditable."
MWCD11 dates the word (and thus, that sense) to 1526. The Century and
the 1913 Webster's Revised and Unabridged show that sense as being
obsolete, but MWCD11 shows it as currently in use. So it's a revived
usage.
|
It's also shown as a current sense in my *Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary,* copyright 1981 ("principal copyright 1973").
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com
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Fred
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:08 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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"The Other Fran" <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1130996293.050963.199570@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: |
Tony Cooper wrote:
On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 04:36:42 GMT, "The Grammer Genious"
washcourthouse@yahoo.com> wrote:
The Other Fran <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote
Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
I'm glad you've had cloture on the matter.
Fashionably haute cloture, I hope.
Surprisingly, there is such a word as "cloture" and it's almost apt, so
there's no need to get "haute" about it.
The only question is whether it was Raymond or I who effected it.
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Except for the other question which is should it be Richard or I, or Richard
or me who effected it?
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The Other Fran
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:08 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 04:36:42 GMT, "The Grammer Genious"
washcourthouse@yahoo.com> wrote:
The Other Fran <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote
Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
I'm glad you've had cloture on the matter.
Fashionably haute cloture, I hope.
|
Surprisingly, there is such a word as "cloture" and it's almost apt, so
there's no need to get "haute" about it.
The only question is whether it was Raymond or I who effected it.
TOF |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:08 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 04:36:42 GMT, "The Grammer Genious"
<washcourthouse@yahoo.com> wrote:
| Quote: | The Other Fran <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote
Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
I'm glad you've had cloture on the matter.
Fashionably haute cloture, I hope. |
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL |
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The Grammer Genious
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:08 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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The Other Fran <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote
| Quote: | Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
|
I'm glad you've had cloture on the matter. |
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The Other Fran
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:09 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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Raymond S. Wise wrote:
| Quote: | Raymond S. Wise wrote:
The Other Fran wrote:
According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of "creditable"
information about a terrorist threat against targets in Australia. I do
hope the information is meritworthy, but I suspect he meant to claim
that it was reliable. Then again, I suppose meritworthy information
would be reliable, so perhaps the usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
TOF
The sense "Worthy of credit or belief ; credible."--as *The Century
Dictionary* puts it--was the first meaning of the word "creditable."
MWCD11 dates the word (and thus, that sense) to 1526. The Century and
the 1913 Webster's Revised and Unabridged show that sense as being
obsolete, but MWCD11 shows it as currently in use. So it's a revived
usage.
It's also shown as a current sense in my *Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary,* copyright 1981 ("principal copyright 1973").
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Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
TOF |
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Jim Lawton
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:20 pm
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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On Thu, 3 Nov 2005 19:49:39 +1300, "Fred" <notme@parachute.net.uk> wrote:
| Quote: |
"The Other Fran" <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1130996293.050963.199570@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Tony Cooper wrote:
On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 04:36:42 GMT, "The Grammer Genious"
washcourthouse@yahoo.com> wrote:
The Other Fran <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote
Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
I'm glad you've had cloture on the matter.
Fashionably haute cloture, I hope.
Surprisingly, there is such a word as "cloture" and it's almost apt, so
there's no need to get "haute" about it.
The only question is whether it was Raymond or I who effected it.
Except for the other question which is should it be Richard or I, or Richard
or me who effected it?
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I think it was Richard II -
"Highly cultured, Richard was one of the greatest royal patrons of the arts"
--
Jim
the polymoth |
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Bob Cunningham
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:52 pm
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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On Thu, 3 Nov 2005 19:49:39 +1300, "Fred"
<notme@parachute.net.uk> said:
| Quote: |
"The Other Fran" <fran_beta@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1130996293.050963.199570@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
|
[...]
| Quote: | The only question is whether it was Raymond or I who effected it.
Except for the other question which is should it be Richard or I, or Richard
or me who effected it?
|
Thistlebottomishly, "Richard or I"; man-in-the-streetishly,
"Richard or me".
--
Bob Cunningham, Southern California, USofA
If you hear someone cry/ 'It is I, it is I'/
Look around and you'll see/ It's not me, it's not me.
(From _Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage_, page 386) |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:12 pm
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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The Other Fran wrote:
| Quote: | Raymond S. Wise wrote:
Raymond S. Wise wrote:
The Other Fran wrote:
According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of
"creditable" information about a terrorist threat against
targets
in Australia. I do hope the information is meritworthy, but I
suspect he meant to claim that it was reliable. Then again, I
suppose meritworthy information would be reliable, so perhaps
the
usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
TOF
The sense "Worthy of credit or belief ; credible."--as *The
Century
Dictionary* puts it--was the first meaning of the word
"creditable."
MWCD11 dates the word (and thus, that sense) to 1526. The Century
and the 1913 Webster's Revised and Unabridged show that sense as
being obsolete, but MWCD11 shows it as currently in use. So it's
a
revived usage.
It's also shown as a current sense in my *Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary,* copyright 1981 ("principal copyright 1973").
Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
|
Except that in our time it's poor style, and so is still to be
resisted. I reflect, though, that "to credit" is a well established
and unremarkable synonym of "to believe". I don't like that much,
either.
--
Mike. |
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Richard R. Hershberger
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:51 pm
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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The Other Fran wrote:
| Quote: | Raymond S. Wise wrote:
Raymond S. Wise wrote:
The Other Fran wrote:
According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of "creditable"
information about a terrorist threat against targets in Australia. I do
hope the information is meritworthy, but I suspect he meant to claim
that it was reliable. Then again, I suppose meritworthy information
would be reliable, so perhaps the usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
TOF
The sense "Worthy of credit or belief ; credible."--as *The Century
Dictionary* puts it--was the first meaning of the word "creditable."
MWCD11 dates the word (and thus, that sense) to 1526. The Century and
the 1913 Webster's Revised and Unabridged show that sense as being
obsolete, but MWCD11 shows it as currently in use. So it's a revived
usage.
It's also shown as a current sense in my *Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary,* copyright 1981 ("principal copyright 1973").
Thanks.
I guess I'll just have to live with it. Damn.
|
Just out of curiosity, how does its being an old usage make you have to
live with it any more than if it were a neologism? |
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William
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:01 pm
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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The Other Fran wrote:
| Quote: | Surprisingly, there is such a word as "cloture" and it's almost apt, so
there's no need to get "haute" about it.
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Ah, but is there such a word as "defencible"?
--
WH |
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John O'Flaherty
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:10 pm
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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The Other Fran wrote:
| Quote: | According to Mr Howard, the AFP is now in possession of "creditable"
information about a terrorist threat against targets in Australia. I do
hope the information is meritworthy, but I suspect he meant to claim
that it was reliable. Then again, I suppose meritworthy information
would be reliable, so perhaps the usage in this case was defencible.
Is this a malapropism or now a broadly acceptable usage?
|
The use of 'creditable' is unremarkable to me (supported by both AHD
and M-W), but I'd never heard 'meritworthy' before. It seems
redundant, sort of.
--
john |
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The Other Fran
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 2:40 am
Post subject: Re: Pet hates: creditable = credible |
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William wrote:
| Quote: | The Other Fran wrote:
Surprisingly, there is such a word as "cloture" and it's almost apt, so
there's no need to get "haute" about it.
Ah, but is there such a word as "defencible"?
--
WH
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In AmE, I believe the common string is "defensible", as the relevant
noun is "defense".
TOF |
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