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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-08-21 18:32:33

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

onerous < onus

An interesting one I just ran across. Certainly substitutes something a little more familiar for something obscure, and the phonological difference isn’t great ([ˈoÊ·nÉ™s] > [ˈoÊ·nɹəs], at least in fast speech).

[legislative minutes from a government site] the bill would force them to look at specie by specie and stops the individual from having the onerous on him of trying to overpower ODFW. arcweb.sos.state.or.us/legislative/legislativeminutes/1997/house/transportation/htrans.626.html

Also the Democrats want all, excess, money allocations to occur on this President’s watch! This would increase Bush’s budget deficit, instead of that of the next President’s, putting the onerous on him!

These prohibitions put the onerous on a developer to obtain an exception to these regulations, increasing the cost and time needed for approval.

The two are etymologically related, I believe: an onus is a burden, and what is onerous is burdensome. An onus, is, accordingly, likely in the nature of things to be onerous.

Part of the oddity is the using of an adjective as if it were an abstract noun. I’m sure we do that elsewhere, but can’t think of great examples at the moment. (The strong can’t mean the strength, the long can’t mean the length, etc.) Doubtless works best when you don’t already have an abstract noun with the right meaning.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-21 18:36:15)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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