"No one seems to know how to get Toronto out of its mayoral mess. It is the product of a flawed civic architecture that, in all fairness, never contemplated the existence of a mayor so mountainously incontinent, yet so impervious to shame."
This use of "incontinent" was dismissed by many as an unintentionally hilarious typo or malapropism that would surely be corrected to "incompetent" in short order, but in fact Coyne, who has a better-than-average grasp of English vocabulary, was using the word in its original sense, dating from the 1300s, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary:
Fascinating use of "incontinent." Thanks, Katherine. I love learning this stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteFascinating use of "incontinent." Thanks, Katherine. I love learning this stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. It takes guts (on Coyne's part) to use a word like that, knowing what it means, but also knowing that most people don't know what it means. Thanks for letting us know.
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