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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I recently have heard a number of speakers using the word economic as if it were a negative adjective meaning “tight” or “difficult.” People will say ”...in these economic times.” (The reason I mention speakers is that the funereal inflection the speaker gives this word is what makes it clear that it is being used this way.) I realize that by some dictionaries’ definitions, “economic” can mean “economical,” so the use is neither wrong or entirely new. But I still feel that the usage represents a subtle shift influenced by the recession that has affected so much of the world.
Thoughts?
Feeling quite combobulated.
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Do you think it is a shift in meaning or just a shortening of the expression “in these harsh economic times”?
Maybe both – a short shift ;-)
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A lot of semantic shifts come about from one person understanding a shortening (ellipsis or whatever) and another taking the resultant structure at face value, without perceiving the unshortened form.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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