Show WHAT NHAT popular usage of the wordis opposed to its definition which Is pale apale 11 two rien men got into an argument retarding the meaning ol of the word lurid one of them had bad used the W word ord as the police reporter uses lt it to describe the red glare in the sky made bade by a fire at night the other man objected to this asserting that the word lurid means pale in istead of 0 deep red thereupon they to the dictionaries and found them khem agreed in denning defining lurid as pale wan ghastly pale but the oxford dictionary has taught up with wills the new and am popular meaning of the word with this defini hoa shining with a red glow or er g glare are amid darkness paid of t lightning nashes hashes across dark clouds or flamo flame mingled with smoke barke but this seems to be gratuitous of 0 the oxford dictionary the word lurid started out ut it seems as a latin adjective meaning pale yellow it was used chiefly of the complexion much as sallow Is used then tt it grew rr ew to have the meaning of ghastly but its transition into the popular meaning given it today seems to have been due to the willfulness of the press which found it a handy word to describe a phenomenon tor for which no other word had apparently quite the desirable flavor manchester guardian |