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December 8, 2007 12:13 pm
How did "set off" come to mean "turn on," as in: "If you burn those muffins, it will set off the fire alarm"?
Curiously,
Dan
1 Reply
December 8, 2007 12:13 pm
That's an odd one, Dan. I'm not sure, except I Think I recall once reading is that there's no word with a longer dictionary entry in the OED than "set." Is that right, Grant?
I think the word "logos" gets that distinction for the Greek-English lexicon, btw.