Timeline for Can "to winnow out" or "to screen out" mean "to extract or identify (something desirable)"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
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| Aug 13, 2016 at 23:34 | vote | accept | Sean | ||
| Aug 10, 2016 at 14:12 | history | edited | Max Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 10, 2016 at 14:03 | comment | added | Max Williams | @AndyT you are absolutely right, of course, I'll edit, thanks. | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 11:23 | history | edited | Max Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 430 characters in body
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| Aug 10, 2016 at 11:18 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | The second result from a Google Books search for to winnow out the is from the Oxford Thesaurus of English, which gives the example sentence It's difficult to winnow out the truth. The third result contains Nor can we rely on the marketplace to winnow out the false and promote the true. I think that's enough to show there's no consistency regarding whether the thing you winnow out is what you want to remove or keep. | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 10:09 | comment | added | Max Williams | @Sean yes, i think it can mean "Get what you want by removing the unwanted parts" or "Get the unwanted parts by removing them", or "Get two groups, what you want and what you don't want, but removing the unwanted parts". The second one might be more common. | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:58 | comment | added | Sean | Yes, it seems like "winnow out" can also be neutral. Though "winnow" by itself definitely means to remove the unwanted parts, hence the reason I incline to believe it's mean leans towards "to remove". | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:55 | comment | added | Max Williams | I'm providing evidence for my assertion that "winnow out" is potentially confusing, if nothing else. | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:54 | comment | added | Max Williams | And this dictionary seems to use it in both ("keep" and "remove") in its own two examples! collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/winnow-out "The committee will need to winnow out the nonsense and produce more practical proposals if it is to achieve results." (remove) and "Time has winnowed out certain of the essays as superior." (keep). Perhaps "winnow out" actually just means "separate" (the verb) and doesn't state which group (good or bad) we actually choose to keep. | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:54 | comment | added | Sean | Yes, indeed. Perhaps it is the case of an accepted (I'm not sure if it's accepted, either, because English is not my mother tongue) colloquial misuse? | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:52 | comment | added | Max Williams | Hmm, interesting. In this dictionary it seems to have the opposite meaning - oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/winnow - the example for defn 2.1 is "amidst this welter of confusing signals, it’s difficult to winnow out the truth" | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:50 | comment | added | Sean | And "They winnow out the weeds among those who come under their influence with quite extraordinary celerity and thoroughness." dictionary.com/browse/winnow Or "dismiss from consideration or a contest" vocabulary.com/dictionary/winnow%20out | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:48 | comment | added | Sean | Hi, but this source suggests "to winnow out" means to "rule out". thefreedictionary.com/winnow+out | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:43 | history | undeleted | Max Williams | ||
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:43 | history | deleted | Max Williams | via Vote | |
| Aug 10, 2016 at 9:42 | history | answered | Max Williams | CC BY-SA 3.0 |