Off-topic Q

Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

Ramapriya

D Ramapriya wrote:
shouldn't a near-miss actually be a collision

No. This would be a nearly-miss.

On Jul 20, 3:36*am, D Ramapriya wrote:
Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

Ramapriya

A 'Near Miss' means there's an unmarried woman in the immediate
proximity. It's an important issue because some people who used to
post here a lot had restraining orders preventing them from being near
misses.

On Jul 20, 8:56*am, a wrote:
On Jul 20, 3:36*am, D Ramapriya wrote:

Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

Ramapriya

A 'Near Miss' *means there's an unmarried woman in the immediate
proximity. It's an important issue because some people who used to
post here a lot had restraining orders preventing them from being near
misses.

Or Mrs. (which is a nearly-Miss, see also: milf)

On Jul 20, 4:24*pm, Clark wrote:
D Ramapriya wrote in news:0850a07f-9837-4575-92c0-
:

Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

Ramapriya

No. It seems some folks fail to understand that a "miss" can be near or far
and still be a miss.


It's the hyphenation that makes the "near" more an adjective than
adverb. "Near miss" would be a lot clearer than "near-miss". While a
near-miss in itself doesn't mean a collision, just as not unreasonable
doesn't = reasonable, it does indicate that a miss was nearly missed.
After all, a near-death experience shows a brush with death, ergo a
near-collision would be nearer the intended conveyance than near-miss.

The engine at full throttle, when the opposite is apropos, is another
such term...

The pettifoggery of semantics

Ramapriya

Clark wrote:
D Ramapriya wrote:
Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

No. It seems some folks fail to understand that a "miss" can be near
or far and still be a miss.

Sorry, but the phrase "far miss" appears at best to be an oxymoron. In fact
"near miss" appears in various Thesaurus as a synonym for "collision".

Jim Logajan wrote:

Sorry, but the phrase "far miss" appears at best to be an oxymoron. In fact
"near miss" appears in various Thesaurus as a synonym for "collision".

Let me guess: Those were online thesauri?

On Jul 20, 2:36*am, D Ramapriya wrote:
Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

Ramapriya

I agree.
"Near miss" seems, logically, to indicate that there WAS a collision
but was "nearly" missed.
The oddity of the english language.

Ricky

Clark wrote:
Jim Logajan wrote:
Clark wrote:
D Ramapriya wrote:
Was wondering about this term "near-miss"... shouldn't a near-miss
actually be a collision and a near-collision a miss?

No. It seems some folks fail to understand that a "miss" can be near
or far and still be a miss.

Sorry, but the phrase "far miss" appears at best to be an oxymoron.
In fact "near miss" appears in various Thesaurus as a synonym for
"collision".


The phrase you are looking for is nearly missed.

On reading the exchange between you and Ramapriya I entered the following
search pattern in Google to see who might consider "near miss" as a synonym
for "collision":
"near miss" collision synonym
And this was returned as the first result:
http://freethesaurus.net/s.php?q=collision

A near miss is defined by wordweb as a narrowly missed collision. In
other words, I suggest you consult higher quality reference material.

But "near miss" is an idiom ("idiom" being used here to mean "an expression
whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent
elements.") Trying to rationalize an idiom like "near miss" is
counterproductive. The idiom is probably confusing to people learning the
English language.

Jim Logajan schrieb:

"near miss" collision synonym
And this was returned as the first result:
http://freethesaurus.net/s.php?q=collision

If a free web site with unknown sources claims so, then is *must* be true.

On the other hand, the OED (Oxford English Dictionary, the big one) says:
"near miss, a shot that only just misses a target"
But since it's neither on the web nor free, I wouldn't trust it.

The idiom is probably confusing to people learning the
English language.

Well, English was only the third language I've learn't in school. But I
must admit that I have never been particularly confused by the
difference between near and nearly.