Fact Checked by....The Dictionary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Week --- "Boneless"
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for the GOP majority of the Ohio Supreme Court, they got fact-checked….by the dictionary!
Remember, the Court (the appointed and unqualified Justice Deters writing for the four GOP members) wrote that no reasonable person could conclude that the word “boneless” could mean without bones, and in doing so, denied a man a jury trial for near-death injuries he suffered from a chicken bone that punctured his windpipe. (Read the very serious story about what happened here.)
It turns out, stories about the outrageous and unjust decision went so viral, Merriam-Webster crowned the word “boneless'“ as one of its “Words of the Week.”
I’ll let the dictionary explain itself:
‘BONELESS’
“Boneless saw increased lookups this week following news of an Ohio Supreme Court ruling involving boneless wings.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a man who ordered boneless wings should have expected bones to be in them, denying him a jury trial after he suffered major injuries…
— Morgan Trau, Ohio Capital Journal, 29 July 2024”
In addition to highlighting this spike in people looking up the definition of the word, Merriam-Webster helpfully reminded us of the actual definition of the word “boneless”:
“We define the relevant sense of bone as “one of the hard parts of the skeleton of a vertebrate.” Senses of boneless in our unabridged dictionary include “being without a bone” (as in “jellyfish are boneless”) and “having the bone or bones removed.”"
So there you have it.
Justice Deters and his 3 GOP colleagues found that no reasonable person would define the word “boneless” in the way that it’s actually defined by…..the damn dictionary.
In a fitting coincidence, the next word Merriam-Webster highlighted this week was none other than “Ding-dong.”
What an embarrassment this Court has become.
* * *
On a serious note: Ohio, do not let these out-of-control Justices redefine the meaning of other critical words in Ohio law, such as reproductive freedom and fair districts.
Please support Justice Donnelly (who skewered the decision in a dissent) HERE, Justice Stewart (who the unqualified Deters is now running against) HERE, and Judge Lisa Forbes (who can flip the Court to a 4-3 Democratic majority if she wins) HERE.
Have a great Saturday!
So these GOP justices have law degrees but can’t correctly define the word “boneless”? If it weren’t about an injury that nearly caused the death of a man, this would be high comedy. Actually Ohio voters should recall these justices and claim fraud because they do not exhibit the intelligence to qualify as legal professionals much less Supreme Court justices.
Thank you, David, for reaffirming my belief in the power of words. And the fact that we all have available to us the tools to define them makes it more absurd when they are misused. You are indefatigable!