Sad vs. tragic

[germdoc]

And on the lighter side, a big pet peeve is the abuse of pre-. People just think you can attach pre to the beginning of any word and it is good to go.

Russ

And another one of mine is "good to go"...just kidding...

Well, I wan't gonna bring this up, but isn't it ironic how no one has brought up misuse of the word "ironic"? Ironically, people use it when they really mean coincidental. Irony, like the word tragedy, comes from Greek and reflects an incongruity between what is said or intended and what actually happened.

Great example of irony: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance"--nearly the last words of American Civil War General John Sedgwick before being shot through the eye by a Confederate sniper. It generally implies some arrogance or someone getting his comeuppance.

Now an old man turning ninety-eight, winning the lottery and dying the next day isn't ironic or tragic or IMO even sad. Just a coincidence.

[LCHIEN]

...
Now an old man turning ninety-eight, winning the lottery and dying the next day isn't ironic or tragic or IMO even sad. Just a coincidence.

Now that is true, both being very rare and unlikely events, but no real connection to each other.

even being 98 is pretty rare, much less dying the day after your 98th BD.