Re: Replace the TC power to depose maintainers
On 2016-12-05 20:57, Philip Hands wrote:
> Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> writes:
>> ]] Ian Jackson
>>> That is 6+ weeks' more stop-energy. 6+ weeks' more inaction. 6+
>>> weeks during which members of the TC have been prevaricating.
>> What are you accusing the TC of lying about?
> I think that British English has drifted into using that as a synonym
> for procrastinate while American English seems to have stuck to its
> earlier meaning (judging by the online dictionary entries I see).
There has evidently been drift in both languages.
The current full Oxford English Dictionary lists only two senses (when
used as an intransitive verb) as non-obsolete:
a. To deviate from straightforwardness; to speak or act in an evasive
way; to quibble, equivocate.
(with citations back to 1623)
b. To behave evasively or indecisively so as to delay action; to
procrastinate.
(with citations back to 1854)
It says that the second is "now the usual sense".
I can find some American dictionaries which strengthen sense 'a' to
include "deliberately mislead" or even "lie", but that is not standard
British usage.
-M-
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