Addressing the issue
BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7279.139/b (Published 20 January 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:139
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I regret not having seen N. W. Goodman's Filler "Addressing the
issue" in the previous week's BMJ when internet problems were affecting
the system "at that point in time".
Here is a phrase which I heard for the first time in the notorious
Watergate Hearings in the United States. One could see the the
vacillation and attempt at deception in the answers from a particular
accused under interrogation. The phrase was used repeatedly when it was
clear that the answer, had it been given in a forthright manner, would
have elucidated the truth. And now, in our time, it has become a common
part of our everyday writing and speech. (I use the word "common" in the
sense of vulgar, inferior, ordinary, without rank or position - OED!)
I have searched the New Oxford Concise English Dictionary and Better
English Guide and found 23 uses of the word "point", and other uses with
the words "at" or "to" or "of". At no time was it associated with "time"
so as to imply a certain meaning. The word "time" had 18 meanings and
several applications none of which used this abominable phrase.
It's about time that editors and interrogators refuse to acknowledge
it at any time.
Dr B, C. Boyd
Competing interests: No competing interests
STANDING WORDS ON THEIR HEADS
Madam
I am afraid the quest for right meaning had better be given up in a
situation where people like Derrida rule the roost. After all the meaning
of a word for he and his likes cosmologically oscillates between
'difference' and 'deference' ( in French vocabulary of course ).For an
Indian who had learnt English earlier than his mother-tongue my inability
to use the word 'gay' in its pristine meaning or for that matter the word
'accost' without the prospect of being 'mugged' ( rather than being
greeted first as was originally thought! ),the quandary is equally
significant.
Competing interests: No competing interests