Re: celeritous

Arcadian Rises wrote:

Giuseppe Glaudini wrote:

swift-moving, usually referring to living creatures only.

Not necessarily (I refer to the "only" since "usually" clashes with
"only").

Good point.

I think of a celeritous (i.e. speedy) trial which BTW is quite
different from a quick trial.

I hate to rain on this parade, but every now and then someone has to
do a bit of resaearch. Onelook.com has no listings for "celeritous"
If you ask google to define it, google just shrugs. But it is in the
M-W Third, and here's the entire definition: "swift-moving." No
examples given. One wonders if GG cheated and tooks his definition
from there. Regardless, I know of no warrant for limiting it to
living creatures. How about a "celeritous train"? And isn't it a bit
ridiculous to be discussing the details of the idiomatic usage of a
word this rare -- and superfluous?

As for trials, in American legal usage a "speedy trial" is not
necessarly swift-moving. A speedy trial is one that comes relatively
soon after arrest and arraignment. The right to a speedy trial is the
right not to languish in jail waiting for the trial to occur.[1] If I
encountered the phrase "celeritous trial" and had any confidence at
all that the person who committed that phrase knew what they were
talking about, I'd assume that swift-moving, aka quick, was meant.

That said, I could go for the rest of my life without ever seeing or
hearing the word again and not feel at all deprived.

[1] Just to keep the nitpickers happy, I suppose it would violate the
constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial if the trial were to
convene for an hour every two weeks.

--
Bob Lieblich
Whose posts are frequently not celeritous
.

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