December 22, 2005, 11:46
shufitz"Dissect"
Today's paper has a story about gutting New Orleans homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, stripping them down to bare stud wals and floors, to be rebuilt. It has three words whose usage structk me as a bit odd,
dissect, fortuitously and
fantastical, hence three treads, this being #1.
quote:
Mike Bertel guided a growling electric saw through splotcy, spirallying patterns of dull colors. Dust flew everywhere. It's mold, smothering entire walls in Cheryl Rachal's flood-damaged, two-story house. ... Mr. Bertel, caked in dust from wrangling moldy sheetrock, disected a 10-foot panel of the ruined wall and hustled it outside onto a 6-foot-high- by 40-foot-long trash heap.
I think of
dissecting as involving medicine or biology. Is the above a proper usage? Is it a common one?
December 22, 2005, 18:19
KallehI don't think I've seen 'dissect' used this way, though it is often used to mean analyze, such as "dissect" the plan.
December 23, 2005, 01:48
arnieWell, it literally means "to cut apart", so the word's use here seems perfectly OK to me.