This lifted from Randy Cassingham's "This is True:"

HOW EMBARRBUTTING! Web sites that import news feeds, but then
automatically censor "objectionable" words, are sometimes committing
"Clbuttic Mistakes". The term was coined when a site changed the word
"classic" to "clbuttic" on the theory the word "butt" (for instance) is
less objectionable than "ass". Prior to the 2008 Olympics, the American
Family Association's news site automatically replaced a word in
articles about sprinter Tyson Gay: "Tyson Homosexual was a blur in
blue," they reported, "sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever
has." Other mangled language has included "consbreastution", an article
on "What did the British Embbutty do for this British National Overseas
pbuttport holder," and a "series of previously secret Central
Intelligence Agency plots to buttbuttinate foreign leaders." (London
Telegraph) ...As if such urinevish buttaults on our language could
protect anyone's chasbreasty.

On this morning's local news, the reporter, describing a car that hit a building, said "The car nearly missed a man sleeping in his bedroom."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "nearly missed" someone the same as actually hitting them? I think she meant to say "narrowly missed" but "nearly" seems to be all too common in this usage now, even among "professional" reporters.

Or maybe "barely" missed.

Alas, but in our local market, the "professional" news reporters aren't much better, in their command of the English language, than their sports counterparts.

"The officer chased the fleeing felon at speeds better than 100 mph."

I think 50 is better than 100, don't you ?

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
On this morning's local news, the reporter, describing a car that hit a building, said "The car nearly missed a man sleeping in his bedroom."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "nearly missed" someone the same as actually hitting them?

No, "near miss" is only ever used to mean a narrowly avoided collision, not a hit. "near" can mean "close, narrow" as in "near escape".

That was my first thought goofy but I don't think it extends to "nearly missed".

If I heard "nearly missed" I would think that something had actually been hit. For example "the wide receiver nearly missed the ball" would mean that he only just managed to catch it.

I agree that the noun phrase "a near miss" is only ever used to mean a narrowly avoided collision.

I think of "near miss" and propinquity to an unmarried female.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
That was my first thought goofy but I don't think it extends to "nearly missed".

Yeah, I think you're right actually.

Asa, how hilarious! They are kidding only themselves.

Until Bob's post, I also thought "nearly missed" would mean to miss, but of course Bob is right. I must have equated it to "near miss," which of course we talk about all the time in nursing (regarding medication errors and the like).

quote:

I must have equated it to "near miss," which of course we talk about all the time in nursing (regarding medication errors and the like).

Talk about "all the time"?

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:

quote:

I must have equated it to "near miss," which of course we talk about all the time in nursing (regarding medication errors and the like).

Talk about "all the time"?

Yes, I'm a little concerned that nurses talk about medication errors all the time. I'd prefer to think they have nothing in that line to EVER talk about.

But anyway, if I have this right, a near miss is the exact opposite of something that nearly missed. Isn't language wonderful?

Yep, all the time. Remember, I am in nursing regulation, so we worry about practice errors, and how to prevent them, on a daily basis. Before that, I was an educator, and I worried about my students making errors. It is just so easy to make an error. Just today I heard about one where the cleaning solution (for cleaning the patient's room) was in a similar bottle to the intravenous fluid. You guessed it...another dead patient. But we're working as hard as we can to prevent those errors. We are studying the airlines and how they've really improved their error rates.

{P.S. this has been a really awful day for me, so please pardon my negative tone. I don't mean to scare people...but if you are hospitalized, bring along a companion who can watch every single thing your health care provider does.)

Murphy's Law (and Murphy did exist - he was an officer with the USAF) states that, "If a thing can go wrong, then sooner or later it will go wrong".

A Skymaster crashed in the centre of Stockport many years ago and the investigation found that a fuel check valve had been fitted back to front, thus causing fuel starvation at a critical time. Although the valve had an arrow on it to denote the direction of flow, its threads were identical and thus reverse fitting was possible. Aviation-standard parts are now made in such a way (with different thread sizes, for example) that incorrect fitting is impossible.

One way to avoid giving lethal fluids to patients, taking Murphy's Law into consideration, would be to ensure that containers of non-medical fluids had a different fitting to those of medical fluids, and could therefore not be attached to the apparatus.