Quote from: hatler on 15 October, 2021, 04:40:56 pmWhy do we say "Shot dead", but "Stabbed to death" ?Why not "Shot to death" and "Stabbed dead" ?Is there a technical difference (linguistic and/or legal) that's combining with "usage frequency"?"To death" suggests multiple (and not individually fatal) wounds. Perhaps it also includes number of assailants. A firing squad shoots someone to death, they don't shoot someone dead. Stabbing dead could be a single fatal action. Stabbed to death - be bleeding out from multiple injuries.I think it's generally imagined (expected) that being stabbed is more survivable than being shot. Being stabbed dead is less common than being shot dead, and so the phrase is used more often.
Why do we say "Shot dead", but "Stabbed to death" ?Why not "Shot to death" and "Stabbed dead" ?
Definition creep: it used to be that you spiked someone's drink to get them drunk but now, after seeing Ian's new thread and doing a bit of googling, it appears that it's the people who get spiked. Well, well, dearie me, what a wonderful modern world we live in.
Quote from: T42 on 21 October, 2021, 10:12:58 amDefinition creep: it used to be that you spiked someone's drink to get them drunk but now, after seeing Ian's new thread and doing a bit of googling, it appears that it's the people who get spiked. Well, well, dearie me, what a wonderful modern world we live in.It's not really a change in definition, it's that the people who are doing the spiking are now doing it directly (and literally, ie with a needle) into their victim, rather than indirectly via their drink.
Yeah, except they aren't…
It wouldn't surprise me if some scrote was using something like ketamine unfortunately.
In a BBC article I read the the victim of a crime had been “allegedly stabbed”. You know, the one that died from stab wounds
Kim, you are very bad!
More correctly they're both forms of being murdered to death.
Quote from: ian on 15 October, 2021, 05:57:12 pmMore correctly they're both forms of being murdered to death.Is there any other outcome of murder than death?
I have heard, and cringed at, "netizens" before, but what on earth is a "brifter"? It sounds like a portmanteau word to describe Farage, Johnson, Handcock etc etc - British grifter. Whatever it is, it sounds bloody horrible.
...while descending down a steep hill...
They are accompaniments which complement the main dish. Or maybe which compliment it. Then again, does it mean all the little bits and pieces you can put together to make something larger? You know, the accomponents?