January 03, 2006, 11:58
arnieEclipsed
How would you use the word
eclipsed in a metaphorical sense?
I saw a piece in the sports pages of a newspaper today that used it wrongly in my view. I feel it means "greatly overshadowed" or similar. It does not mean just "beaten", etc.
Talking about a football club's results at their home ground, the article said that they had only lost one game, which record was
eclipsed only by Chelsea [who had lost none].
Surely
eclipsed is too strong a word in this context?
January 03, 2006, 12:06
BobHaleI'd agree.
Eclipsed seems a very odd choice of word there. For me the implication of one thing metaphorically eclipsing another is that the eclipsed thing is made insignificant by the comparison.
January 03, 2006, 20:40
KallehI haven't used the term that often, but AHD states that one definition is: "To surpass; outshine: an outstanding performance that eclipsed the previous record." Could they have appropriately used it to mean "outshined by"?
January 04, 2006, 10:41
arnieBut, Kalleh, would you say that a record that was only slightly better than another actually outshone it?
January 04, 2006, 18:19
KallehNo, you are right, Arnie. But I would say that they had "surpassed" them. Here is where I find dictionaries confusing. Which definitions are appropriate to use?