"Switzerland will not be used to circumnavigate EU sanctions on Russia, government says" (CNN headline).
Is this even a possible usage, or did they really mean circumvent?
Getting Around a Law
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Getting Around a Law
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: Getting Around a Law
I think you are right and the intended meaning is "circumvent." How it became "circumnavigate" is impossible to determine at this point: it could have been the author, the editor or the proofreader who put it in. On 1976 when William Tillman circumnavigated Spitsbergen in his cutter Baroque, he ended up more or less where in started out. Whereas if, in his voyage to Patagonia, he had circumvented the Straights of Magellan, he would have gone around Cape Horn instead.
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8145
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Re: Getting Around a Law
I'm becoming more and more convinced that the concepts of editor and proofreader are passé, especially on the internot.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: Getting Around a Law
I’m sure it was a mistake, but the word is used figuratively. The OED has such a citation from nearly two hundred years ago.
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