Recognizing recce
Babble on.
Say these two words out loud, one right after the other: "reconnaissance" and "recognizance." Pretty similar, especially if you say them quickly, aren't they? The real distinction, given their similarity to the ear, should be the context.
Poor Melissa Leong at CanWest missed that entirely:
"They were going to come up here for refuge and what we were going to do was provide a safe house for them and we even scoped the area out, did a little recognizance," Mr. Shaikh said. [Babbler's bold]
Maybe he should have just said "recce" and waited for the journalists to ask him to spell it so they could look it up.
Babble off.
posted by Babbling Brooks @ 10:36 a.m.
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've noticed that in more than a few press quotes -- it looks like the speaker is illiterate until I figure out what he actually said.
Perhaps Mr Shaikh meant what he said by recognizance. He was scoping out the area, and then took them to court and made them pledge a sum of money as a promisary token.
Errr, probably not.
Good find.
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