In a seemingly interminable meeting yesterday, one of the
speakers, asked whether her committee had discussed a particular point of
granular interest to the questioner, said the following:
I don't think we
really had a fulsome discussion about that.
I also hope they didn't. Fulsome means "complimentary
or flattering to an excessive degree." So Polonius's praise might be
described as fulsome (or obsequious), but nothing about the
bureaucratic process should be.
Malapropism has always amused me, and academic committee
meetings are a wonderful place to observe it. And I have certainly produced my
share of diction errors in my time. But this slip (not to mention the awkwardly placed modifier) made an otherwise
wrist-slicingly boring meeting a little brighter.
Thus ends my gratitude affirmation for today. Now back to my
regularly scheduled snark....
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