The phrase - Near Miss

[jepuskar]

This term is used all over the media and heavily on the accidents and incidents section of this board.

A near miss is a hit. Look, they nearly missed. Should be called a near hit...nearly missing implies that you hit.

This very topic was discussed by my very good friend George Carlin. Something along the lines of, 'Look Dave, those planes nearly missed' after they collided.

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Also, why I'm in the mood...isn't the term underwater kind of odd? When we Scuba dive we are not underwater, we are in the water.....underwater would be below the ocean floor.

Something to think about it.

Jason

 

[Seabear70]

Well, if it meant, under the ocean floor, wouldn't the expression be under Whale (CENCORED) Or covered by a red hat?

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

I can't stand when people use 'near miss'. The statements "two trucks nearly collided" and "two trucks nearly missed" describe two entirely different situations.

Wouldn't 'near miss' and 'nearly missed' mean two different things? I'm not an english major, but to me 'near miss' means 'nearly colided', while 'nearly missed' means 'barely colided.'

 

[norcaldiver]

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1994), tracing the phrase to World War II, notes its ubiquity and concludes that "despite its apparent lack of logic, it is not an error." Fowler's Modern English Usage defines a near miss simply as "a miss that was nearly a hit." (That's from the 1968 edition; the 1996 Fowler's omits the phrase, which suggests that it's no longer deemed worthy of discussion.)

 

[Otter]

I am not an English major either, but there is a difference between a "near miss" and "nearly missed". In a "near miss", the word "miss" is a noun (person, place, or thing) with a modifier of near -- as in "large shark". In "nearly missed" the word "missed" is a verb (action), with the word nearly being an adverb modifying the verb.

I guess my 9th grade English teacher was gooder than I thought!

 

[Hoppy]

I guess my 9th grade English teacher was gooder than I thought!

:rofl:

Now that made me laugh, but the original point of near miss.
Jep you're right its absolute codswallop.

Sort that one out then you non-uk peeps. :11ztongue

 

[The Chairman]

Too late, most of them have been exposed to "Harry Potter" and that is used quite rebularly there!

BTW, why are they called "tanks" when tanks are open containers?

Why are the called "lights" when every sane person knows that they merely suck out the dark (until the batteries get all full of dark)???

 

[Hoppy]

Too late, most of them have been exposed to "Harry Potter" and that is used quite rebularly there!

Darn it.

Now thats given me a thought for a rant in Whine and Cheeze now. Harry Potter !

 

[TX101]

This very topic was discussed by my very good friend George Carlin. Something along the lines of, 'Look Dave, those planes nearly missed' after they collided.

You actually know George Carlin? He was f***ing funny in Jay & Bob strike back.

 

[bwerb]

I've never understood "head over heels"...isn't your head almost always situated over your heels?