Where there’s smoke, there’s ‘extinguishing’?
Airports and airplanes are even better for grammar- and word-watching than Wendy’s is. I just got off a plane on which the pilot announced he would “extinguish” the seatbelt light when we got to a certain altitude. I got the image of him making his way through the cabin with a candle-snuffer, while a hopefully able co-pilot took the wheel.
It reminds me of what I wrote in my recent column on Chinese characters: the character for “lamp” contains a component that means “fire,” because that’s how you used to light a lamp.
Posted by Nathan Bierma on 05/07 at 03:52 PM
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