[ExI] New Bioscience Company Raises $15 Million to Revive Woolly Mammoth

[Dave Sill]

On Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 2:51 PM Anton Sherwood via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Yes, by all means let's use any old word that more or less resembles
> what we mean, everyone will know what we mean.


What part of the following is unclear?

"The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary
and the Oxford Dictionaries regard the form *comprised of* as standard
English usage."

We may as well say
> "give" when we mean "take", because context will prevent any confusion,
> right?  Until there's a context in which two different meanings will
> fit, and we can't use words to distinguish between them because, hey, a
> dictionary says it's just fine to use them in either sense.  Wouldn't
> want to be stuffy or anything.
>

There's ample room for ambiguity in proper English. Assuming that everyone
is using the same dictionary that you're using is a good way to introduce
it. Usage changes over time. Railing against it is silly and futile.

-Dave
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20210916/ed2ba9f6/attachment.htm>