p-list backstory

[Paul Mackin]

On Dec 30, 2005, at 10:36 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:

> Paul Mackin wrote:
>>
>> On Dec 27, 2005, at 4:24 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:
>>> i used to think "peruse" meant to skim, was tickled to find not so
>>> very long ago that it meant the opposite
>>
>>
>> That can happen. Seems like there are words in our language that have
>> been used or pronounced "incorrectly" so often and so universally
>> that the incorrect rendering has become the correct one. Which is  
>> fine.
>>
>
> That might not be the case for "peruse" though.  It's not a word I've
> heard spoken all that much, and I'm a very lazy reader, seldom pausing
> to look words up (this is grist for a 2006 resolution)

I'm the same way on the theory that there is usually enough  
redundancy built into writing that a single word of two doesn't add  
much to understanding.

Regardless of dictionaries it seems to me  that "peruse" had probably  
lost  much specificity of meaning long before any of us p-listers  
were born--had become a throw-away word tossed in mainly for decoration.

In perusing (sic) the real estate section of this morning's   
Washington Post I came across this use of the  word in reference to a  
1887 promotional booklet for a Washington suburb:

"A railroad ride to Garrett Park from Washington consumes about  
thirty minutes, which is time enough to enable the Washington  
businessman to PERUSE  his evening newspaper and to reach a safe  
distance from the marauders that always infest the suburbs of a large  
city." (emphasis added)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/ 
AR2005123000659.html