Precipitate
Jan. 10th, 2007 03:55 pmLook at the word precipitate.
I agree with all the other definitions, but as a transitive verb I most often heard it as precipitating a chain of events, with connotations of doing so accidentally. This could share with the listed meaning a result out of proportion to the cause, but my remembrance would have the cause small and the chain long, whereas the dictionary just has anything that causes a disastrous result.
Am I totally imagining my meaning? I cannot recall -- where might I have recieved that impression? Simply from that particular phrasing?
I wanted to use it in the context of describing an apology. If I hold a party here when someone is living abroad then I say "sorry you'll miss out", meaning, of the three branches of apology (a) regretting, (b) without culpability but (c) that I did in fact cause their missing out, even though unavoidably. I would have described case (c) as precipitating, but that now seems wrong. What should I say?
I agree with all the other definitions, but as a transitive verb I most often heard it as precipitating a chain of events, with connotations of doing so accidentally. This could share with the listed meaning a result out of proportion to the cause, but my remembrance would have the cause small and the chain long, whereas the dictionary just has anything that causes a disastrous result.
Am I totally imagining my meaning? I cannot recall -- where might I have recieved that impression? Simply from that particular phrasing?
I wanted to use it in the context of describing an apology. If I hold a party here when someone is living abroad then I say "sorry you'll miss out", meaning, of the three branches of apology (a) regretting, (b) without culpability but (c) that I did in fact cause their missing out, even though unavoidably. I would have described case (c) as precipitating, but that now seems wrong. What should I say?