April 05, 2016, 08:23
arnieTo own
I saw a newspaper headline that said:
Rodgers owns he is lacking. It was in the sports section, and I know that Rodgers is the manager of the England football team (for Americans, that's 'soccer coach'). Since I was not interested I read no further.
What intrigued me was the use of the word
owns to mean "admits". I've seen it used that way occasionally, but usually the phrasal verb
owns up would be used. Presumably some headline writer was short on space and used the four-letter 'owns' instead of the six-letter 'admits'.
There are other uses too, of course; see
Oxford Dictionaries.
April 07, 2016, 05:04
GeoffRare, yes, yet the meaning is clear to me.
April 07, 2016, 20:53
KallehI think, though, that arnie's use of "own" like that (not "owning up" but just to "own" your behavior or something) is becoming more common. I hadn't heard it used that way until a few years ago.