Word: inference
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...profession guilty of non-defense is lexicography. With proud humility today's dictionary editor abdicates even as arbiter, refusing to recognize any standards but usage. If enough people misuse disinterested as a synonym for uninterested, Webster's will honor it as a synonym. If enough people say infer when they mean imply, then that becomes its meaning in the eyes of a dictionary editor...
...infer Gertrude's playfulness in Picasso's Still Life with Fruit and Glass (1908): a creative game when the contour of the glass becomes the contour line of the pear. Can you tell whither glass is in front or in back of the pear...
...subjective style. He does not show events but responses to events. There is, for instance, one scene where the three men are at a dice board. The camera focuses on their facial expressions, and we never actually see what happens with the dice. We are, of course, meant to infer actions from character reactions. And this would be a legitimate technique if Cassavetes were not constantly implying some larger, more important, context, some intricate narrative which lies just beyond sight...
Louisiana Democrat Russell B. Long, committee chairman, fumed that "the Times article sought to infer something improper about the payments." The Washington Post fired a double-barreled blast at both the Times for "unfair insinuations," and at Connally's "friends" on the Finance Committee for giving "the appearance of wanting to shove the whole situation out of sight by forcing an immediate vote" on his confirmation. Michigan's Robert Griffin, the Republican whip, told Connally: "If this is all there is to it, the New York Times owes you an apology...
...Mary Jo left a party to go to the ferry that would take them from Chappaquiddick to their separate lodgings in Edgartown. A paved road bearing left led to the ferry. A dirt road going right led to Dike Bridge and a deserted beach. Said Boyle: "I infer that Kennedy and Kopechne did not intend to return to Edgartown at that time; that Kennedy did not intend to drive to the ferry slip and his turn onto Dike Road was intentional...