Muddle-headed Kay (mhw) wrote,
Muddle-headed Kay
mhw

This journal has been placed in memorial status. New entries cannot be posted to it.

  • Mood: pedantic
  • Music: Rossini: Overture to The Thieving Magpie

Mh. Even the BBC is slipping, or is it only the CofE?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030706/80/e3sdz.html

Correct me if I'm wrong, but so far as I'm concerned celibacy is the condition of being unmarried, or more modernly, voluntarily not being in a relationship. Abstinence, or more specifically continence, is the forgoing of sex which may or may not occur within a marriage or other relationship.

Therefore "John has said that he is celibate although in a 27-year committed relationship" is meaningless. He may be continent within the relationship, but he certainly isn't celibate.

CofEers, has celibate taken on a new official meaning, or is this just sloppy English?
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