comments

1. Cindy Scroggins on September 16th, 2009 at 10:59 am

   Yes.

   He was suspicious [of me].

   He was suspicious [to me].

2. Caleb Miller on September 16th, 2009 at 11:00 am

   Absolutely. Suspicious means both “fishy” and “leery”.

3. Deron Bauman on September 16th, 2009 at 11:05 am

   I always wonder in cases like this if there was an original meaning that got twisted.

4. Deron Bauman on September 16th, 2009 at 11:06 am

   actually, I always assume in cases like this that there was an original meaning that got twisted or misused and then it became common usage.

5. Cindy Scroggins on September 16th, 2009 at 11:16 am

   English adjectives tend to be flexible. The word dubious is similar:

   I was dubious of the situation.

   He was a dubious choice for the job.

6. Dave on September 16th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

   I tend to assume that nearly every word has an original meaning that got twisted or misused into common usage. If there’s one thing language ain’t, it’s static.

7. India on September 16th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

   Yes, and both senses have been in use for centuries. From which it does not necessarily follow that they are equally accepted, but in this case, they seem to be.

   Unlike presently, which I smacked down just yesterday while proofreading because it was truly unclear whether the writer meant “now” or “soon.”

8. Cindy Scroggins on September 16th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

   Fucking adverbs.

9. Sheila Ryan on September 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

   “We can’t go on together/With suspicious minds.”

10. range on September 16th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Both. Your quandary is wondering who notices that this person is being suspicious when he’s suspiciously skulking around. No one needs to notice, he’s just acting that way, kind of like a thief casing out a joint or a pedophile in a park.

11. Dylan Kahler on September 17th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    what about words that have multiple, contradictory meanings?

    take “oversight” for example, which is used to describe watchful care or supervision AND inadvertent mistakes.

    …

    makes me glad i’m a native english speaker. i’d hate to have to learn it as a second language.

12. Sheila Ryan on September 17th, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    I’m with you, Dylan. It is a source of continual wonderment to me the vast numbers of people who emigrate to the United States already having learned English as a second language — or who manage to do so once they are here, often while working long hours at their jobs.

13. Lucy on September 17th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    Yeah, right? And English is probably the only language in the world whose speakers expect to be able to lapse into their own language and have other people understand them, and they very often do, too. Except that time in a stationery store in København, where a French woman before me in the queue insisted on speaking only French and elaborate body language to the bewildered counter assistant. That was hilarious.

14. Sheila Ryan on September 17th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    Not only hilarious, but . . . unusual. I am sure I have never seen a French traveler insist on speaking French outside of France.

    My French is not impossibly bad — I seem to get by — but I still smile over the exchange in a Parisian travel agent’s office.

    After I had wasted some breath describing the convoluted rail itinerary I hoped to arrange, the agent looked me in the eye.

    “Do you speak English?”

    “Ah, oui.”

    “Speak English.”

15. Cindy Scroggins on September 17th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    Oh, I had a French man insist on speaking French. Apparently my accent sounded too good when I told him in my limited French that I did not speak French. He insisted that I did. This was when I was working in a bookstore. I had the brilliant idea of fetching a French/English dictionary, thinking he could show me what he wanted in the dictionary and I’d be able to help him. He became enraged, apparently thinking I thought he was looking for a dictionary. This was the first time in my then-young life I realized that mean, stupid and crazy were not American exclusives.

    I sent him to Woolworths.

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