(12-06-2020, 10:41 PM)plam Wrote:(12-06-2020, 09:29 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: You both are referring to the legal crime, not the lay meaning. “Technically correct” in only the literal meaning of technical.
Words have meanings, though, and I think there is value to differentiating "murder" from "manslaughter". But maybe I'm too much of a prescriptivist.
You are correct; however, this particular discussion was started by Rainrider22 objecting to mention of the word “murder” in connection with deaths caused by drivers. Now I can’t actually speak for them, but my impression, just from that one message and not assessing everything they’ve ever written, is that their objection is to associating a word that describes a criminal act with the perfectly natural act of occasionally killing a few pedestrians while innocently driving ones car. If danbrotherston had used “manslaughter” instead of “murder” I think we would be having pretty much the same discussion.