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Another one of those "you know what it means, but..." headlines Login/Join
 
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Muncie man faces up to 50 years after molesting plea

Why would he molest a plea?
 
Posts: 6168 | Location: Muncie, IndianaReply With QuoteReport This Post
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Why would he molest a plea?

Don't knock it till you've tried it.
 
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Isn't a noun, not a verb, required to make sense? "Molestation" would be the right word, I think. Or does New Age Grammar disagree?

Furthermore, how is it that "molest" has begun to only be used as a nonspecific term for sexual impropriety? That wasn't the first definition in my old dictionary!

Geoff the language luddite Roll Eyes
 
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Picture of BobHale
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Reading book.
Playing cards.
Cooking utensils.
Driving gloves.
Turning point.
Milking stool.
Walking dead.

That said, I agree that the headline is momentarily amusing.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Furthermore, how is it that "molest" has begun to only be used as a nonspecific term for sexual impropriety? That wasn't the first definition in my old dictionary!

I checked OED about how the definition of molest has changed over the years. It was first cited by Chaucer in 1425 to mean "To cause trouble, grief, or vexation to; to disturb, annoy, inconvenience." It wasn't until 1889, in the Jrn.l Anthropol. Inst., that it came to mean "to harrass, attack, or abuse sexually.
 
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From the on-line NY Times: "The Philippine military is verifying a claim by Abu Sayyaf militants that they have kidnapped a German man from a yacht and shot and killed his female companion, whose suspected body was found in the abandoned boat ..."

"Suspected body?" Hmmmmmm... Confused
 
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It doesn't even make sense.
 
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Is the boat abandoned if its occupants are either killed or kidnapped? As you said, Kalleh, the NYT should do better!
 
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I see your point about "abandoned," though in looking it up, it means having been deserted, and I suppose if the occupants are killed, it's deserted.

The word "desert" is interesting. "Desert" a baren land, is pronounced differently from "desert" (to abandon), while the latter is pronounced like "dessert.
 
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while the latter is pronounced like "dessert.

More like "dezzert" here in the UK.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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dez-URT (the food; DEZ-urt (Barren land)
 
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