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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Set off
dhenderson
Sunnyvale, CA
70 Posts
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1
2007/12/06 - 9:38am
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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

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Martha Barnette
San Diego, CA
820 Posts
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2
2007/12/08 - 7:13pm
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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.

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