Kees, Yes, I was using the second meaning.
English contains a number of words and phrases that can mean either A or ¬A in a context-sensitive fashion. The verb to enjoin can, for example, mean either 1) to require or 2) to forbid. The Alexandrian rhetoricians wrote about the use of such treacherous words in ancient Greek, and I suspect that they may occur in modern Dutch too. --jg On 8/14/12, ibmmain <[email protected]> wrote: >> "All but impossible" means "very nearly impossible", "impossible >> without very great difficulties", and the like. > > I see. It's almost entirely unlike .... (I couldn't resist.) > Barbara > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
