(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

Comcast News has mildly annoyed me once more. I won't blame them for the more head-shaking but accurate content in this article, but there is the wording of this sentence:

"Carbon Footprint Stomping" is a phrase used to describe flaunting environmentally "green" activities by doing things like driving gas-guzzling Hummers and flying private jets, which in these energy-conscious times might be considered the height of political incorrectness.

In times past, I haven't really minded the use of "flaunting" as a synonym for "flouting." Bill Cosby cited such usage in The New York Times as a sign of waning education, but seeing as dictionaries are including that definition (after a moderately long list of unrelated ones), I usually accept it.

Yet somehow, in this case, my mind jumped to the older definition first -- that of showing off. Any time that I have to re-adjust my semantic understanding late in a sentence and the author didn't intend it is pretty bothersome.

Comments

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

My experience in reading that sentence parallels yours, especially since it's not unheard of for someone to, for instance, drive a "hybrid" vehicle everywhere just to say "look how much I'm doing for the environment" when in fact it is accomplishing no such thing.

[octan.livejournal.com]

On the lighter side, hey, fun new neologism!

[recursivepizza.livejournal.com]

I had to reread that sentence several times, because it made no sense. I finally figured out that this was annoyingly due to the fact that they were using "flaunt" incorrectly. Then I read your commentary. =)