...A better example I was looking at today from the same set of source books: "whoever is least among you all is the greatest" (Luke 9:48). If "least" and "greatest" have any semantic meanings, they are entirely opposite and incompatible, but this did not stop someone from saying that both of these describe the same people.
For example ``Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always
liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons."'' No one, except philosophers, gets
stuck in an infinite loop trying to figure whether all Cretans are
liars. Everyone recognises that it is hyperbole.
So in a rather ironic twist I think that ``uncancelable'' is
being used in just such a non-standard way so that those who
are arguing against uncancelability aren't allowing the word
to take on a new meaning. :-)
Having watched the debate for the ten years or so that it has been
going on I've almost always found the counter-examples to be highly
contrived or of the special usage type. ...
... Lets take an example:-
Q: Are you going to the Lantern Festival tomorrow night?
A: I was going tomorrow, but something has come up.
Is the ``was'' really a future reference? I don't think so.
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