Seattlest: Alaska Airlines' Trying Spring Continues

abbey

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:58:08 -0800

courtesy of dictionary.com: "EVACUATE - 1. to leave empty; vacate." Not naive, just have a dumb sense of humor!

abbey

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:53:37 -0800

I, with all my charming naivete, see evacuate as just a more urgent version of "to leave." So a headline pronouncing a 737 full of passengers were asked to leave after landing, seems anything but newsworthy.

James Callan

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:33:57 -0800

I trust The Wire for depictions of Baltimore and examinations of drug policy. Usage issues? Not so much.

Michael van Baker

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:17:45 -0800

Yes, a headline where *people* are evacuated could be construed in an unfortunate manner, but evacuating an Alaska Airlines 737 is unlikely to make anyone think that the plane was emptying its bowels. I say STET.

Audrey

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:41:53 -0800

That meaning of the word really only took hold post-WWII. Persnickety copy editors still avoid using "evacuate" in that way. See: The Wire.

Jeremy M. Barker

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:35:48 -0800

One also evacuates people from dangerous places.

Audrey

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:29:01 -0800

One's bowels are evacuated.

Jeremy M. Barker

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:24:43 -0800

I don't get it. Why is that headline unintentionally funny, and what's the verb one would normally use?