Yes, and I heard a newscaster misuse “enticed” , speaking about rioters, when she meant “incited”. Rod Haenni Zone 5 or 6 or 7 depending on microclimate Littleton, Colorado Multitudes of Colchicums in full bloom Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 18, 2020, at 9:14 AM, Tim Eck via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > > Jane said: > "The second new word I learned today is something that we on the Pacific > coast are all yearning for at this moment: "petrichor," the fragrance of > sun-baked earth when it is first struck by rain." > > I had been familiar with "petrichor" already, though back east we mostly > don't get much sunbaked earth and have to rely on sunbaked boulders since > they bake a lot quicker. > A word that I recently enjoyed learning was "mondegreen", named for Lady > Mondegreen, much regaled in Scottish ballads. > But as uplifting as it is to learn a new word, I find it increasingly > frustrating to hear perfectly good old words being confounded and macerated > on the airwaves. I am begrudgingly accepting that "death spiral" isn't > just for airplanes anymore, as "spiralling out of control" becomes a > mandatory phrase in every broadcast and that "epicenters" aren't just for > earthquakes anymore. (By the way, isn't the west coast about due? Maybe a > "fire sharknado"?) > But lately as so many situations are being "exacerbated", I keep hearing > PBS commentators confounding it with "exasperated" and have begun shouting > at my radio on a regular basis. As a child I revered Walter Cronkite and > other well educated and well spoken commentators and personalities like > Dorothy Parker and Bennett Cerf. But just the other day I heard someone on > public radio say "exasturbated" for "exacerbated". Every time I start to > visualize that as a portmanteau, I lose my train of thought. > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…