Showing posts with label ipso facto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ipso facto. Show all posts

Friday, July 6, 2007

Words I'm Looking Up (One in an occasional series on words I'm looking up)

"Ipso facto" (Latin)
by that very fact -- Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun -- by the fact itself; by the very nature of the deed: "to be condemned ipso facto." -- Dictionary.com

Interestingly, Webster's doesn't say what part of speech it is, but Dictionary.com does. It calls it a noun, but uses it in an example in which it seems to be more of an adverb -- reinforcing my theory that all this language stuff is either 1. the blind claiming they can see as they lead the blind, or 2. a conspiracy to make us all feel stupid.

Indeed, when I turn to a third source, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, I see it dubbed an adverb, reinforcing my other theory: I'm good.

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