Not Kosher for Passover
Weird line from the New York Times:
"Graduates heard a similar message at hundreds of colleges this spring, as commencement orators — including actors, executives, poets and heads of state — leavened their congratulatory messages with acknowledgment of the bleak marketplace outside campus."
To me this seems like a novel use of the word "leavened."
"Graduates heard a similar message at hundreds of colleges this spring, as commencement orators — including actors, executives, poets and heads of state — leavened their congratulatory messages with acknowledgment of the bleak marketplace outside campus."
To me this seems like a novel use of the word "leavened."
posted by James | 1:26 PM
2 Comments:
Nah dude. This is common, though a little bizarre. Examples.
The OED sez:
2. fig. (Cf. LEAVEN n. 2.) To permeate with a transforming influence as leaven does; to imbue or mingle with some tempering or modifying element; {dag}rarely, to debase or corrupt by admixture.
And cites an example from 1550.
All right, so maybe not novel - but, I feel, inapt.
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