{"id":11023,"date":"2022-04-25T12:52:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T12:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=11023"},"modified":"2023-05-06T07:04:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T07:04:01","slug":"amid-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=11023","title":{"rendered":"Amid confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>One recent development your &#8216;umble scribe has noticed in respect of the vocabulary used by members of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fourth_Estate\">Fourth Estate<\/a> is an unprecedented rise in the use of <em>amid<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p>This preposition has the following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/amid\">definition<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>in or into the middle of;surrounded by.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>A useful synonym in this context is <em>among<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p>Other definitions include <em>during<\/em> and <em>with the accompaniment of<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p>Needless to say. these definitions are not always adhered to by the more illiterate members of the press and poor old <em>amid<\/em> is consequently used out of context, as per today&#8217;s example from the Powys County Times.<\/p>\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11033\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/county_times_amid.png\" alt=\"Headline reads Historic Newtown church struck by vandals amid appeal for witnesses\" width=\"600\" height=\"575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/county_times_amid.png 600w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/county_times_amid-300x288.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>The confusion apparent in the headline was succinctly explained by the @KeepBristolTidy Twitter account, who helpfully stated the following.<\/p>\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/amid_rob.png\" alt=\"Tweet reads So the church was struck by vandals on the middle of the appeal for information about the same vandals?\" width=\"597\" height=\"322\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11035\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/amid_rob.png 597w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/amid_rob-300x162.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/>\r\n<p>Our old friend The Guardian Style Guide has plenty to say about <em>amid<\/em>, including the following:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>Some cliches make the news sound tired; this one makes the news sound as if it\u2019s not news at all.<\/blockquote>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One recent development your &#8216;umble scribe has noticed in respect of the vocabulary used by members of the Fourth Estate is an unprecedented rise in the use of amid. This preposition has the following definition: in or into the middle of;surrounded by. A useful synonym in this context is among. Other definitions include during and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32,34],"tags":[36,16,22,33,35],"class_list":["post-11023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-media","category-social-media","tag-comment","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-media-2","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11023"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12745,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11023\/revisions\/12745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}