Monday, December 14, 2020

“Valedictory”

From The Washington Post:

It was only Trump’s defiance that prompted Biden to decide to give another valedictory speech.
No, another victory speech. Merriam-Webster tells us that valedictory is
borrowed from New Latin valedictōrius, from Latin valedic-, alternate stem of vale dīcere, valedīcere “to say goodbye” + -tōrius, adjective suffix (originally derivatives of agent nouns ending in -tōr-, -tor).
A valediction is “an act of bidding farewell.”

Odd: the sentence that follows the one I’ve quoted refers to Biden’s “victory speech more than five weeks ago.” Is valedictory an autocorrection error? An attempt at elegant (or inelegant) variation?

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