From: Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sat Dec 19 1998 - 14:38:04 MST
At 09:57 PM 12/18/98 EST, EvMick wrote:
>> Luckily we're now devolving to this point.
>It annoys me when this happens.
>what's a de-volve? How is it possible to de-volve?
Good point. `Devolve' actually has a perfectly good use, which has
(almost) nothing to do with denoting evolution in the `wrong' or
`primitive' direction (in Darwinian terms almost meaningless anyway). It
means `to pass [something, e.g. decisive power] to a lower - or perhaps
more `authentic' - level in a hierarchy', as when political authority is
devolved from the central state to smaller units within it. (I suspect
Damien S. might have been employing a version of this correct usage; he is
usually impeccable.)
I suggest using words such as `regress' and `regression' to convey what
people regularly mean when they misuse `devolve' and `devolution'.
Damien Broderick
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