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Premises on the premises
Ron Draney
721 Posts
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1
2016/08/29 - 12:15am

On the show the week of August 20th, a caller described a problem he had with people using the word premises (which he understood to mean the place or grounds where something happens) in place of premise (a presupposition; something assumed).

It brought to mind the practice I've observed of people equating incident (something that happens) with incidence (the frequency with which something happens). This may be due to the same problem as the caller's situation (someone hears "incidents", understands it as "incidence", and deduces the singular working backwards). It may also be influenced by the word instance with a similar meaning (although I've never heard, to my knowledge, someone thinking that instant means the same thing).

(BTW, I've been unable for two weeks to log in to the forum. Kept getting a message that the request had timed out. Ended up having to reset my password to get back in. Has anyone else experienced this problem?)

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2016/08/30 - 3:41pm

Ron Draney said
 I've never heard, to my knowledge, someone thinking that instant means the same thing.

(BTW, I've been unable for two weeks to log in to the forum. Kept getting a message that the request had timed out. Ended up having to reset my password to get back in. Has anyone else experienced this problem?)  

Not to have this happen would certainly be my preferent.

Just now I had to jump through several hoops in order to log in, but did not have to change my password.

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