John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Gianna writes:
On the subject of language (but off the subject of weather) I
accidentally saw a moment of 'Richard and Judy' while channel hopping
yesterday. There was a short piece of film showing some sort of food
before switching to Richard who said 'ah I can virtually smell that'.

I appreciate he is a native speaker and all that, but that is an
idiotic thing to say, isn't it?

I don't think so. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "virtually" as:
1. in effect, to all intents; 2. nearly, almost.

Might I ask which edition that is, please?

My COED (rev. 11th. ed. 2006) has:
1 nearly; almost.
2 computing ... [snipped as not relevant here]

It is not unusual for definitions to change but I would like to know when your
(1) was the most current, and perhaps also when that ceased to be the case, as I
have an interest in these things. (The SOED has a stricter def, btw.)


With regard to Richard, it was my view that 'virtually' (in the sense of nearly
or almost) and 'smell' were mutually exclusive in a logical sense, rather than
questioning the meaning of 'virtually'. Perhaps I am still a little too literal
in my comprehension ... but I still laughed at him.


--
Gianna

http://www.buchan-meteo.org.uk
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