Sometimes people use words that are so familiar you expect them to connote a particular meaning. This can be, I'm afraid, an error. I came to that realisation on a recent trip with a low cost(everything is relative) airline called easy (no guarantees it actually WILL be easy. Just a name) jet. It dawned on me while I waited in the snaking line for the service called bag drop(drop still means 'to set down or unload' (OED) which sounds like a fairly fast action. Tricked.), and was reinforced as I noted that 'priority boarding' actually means the elderly and people with children have less priority than those passengers who have paid for 'speedy boarding'(there is no evidence that time actually does speed up for these people while boarding, or that Easyjet provide some sort of whisking-through service: speedy boarders still have to do everything that the slow boarders have to do, just ten seconds in front).
What was indisputable, however, was the sudden and unmistakeable presence of a policeman in the departure (not necessarily an adjective; think of it more as a conceptual term) lounge just as the airport staff prepared to make an announcement. The delayed flight wasn't actually going to take off, and as it was the last one that night, we'd have to retrace our steps to arrivals(technically, we had arrived - from departures) to pick up our luggage, and then queue up to rebook our journey.
A policeman.
What was indisputable, however, was the sudden and unmistakeable presence of a policeman in the departure (not necessarily an adjective; think of it more as a conceptual term) lounge just as the airport staff prepared to make an announcement. The delayed flight wasn't actually going to take off, and as it was the last one that night, we'd have to retrace our steps to arrivals(technically, we had arrived - from departures) to pick up our luggage, and then queue up to rebook our journey.
A policeman.
He was necessary, you see, because it turned out that that final announcement really was unambiguous, and all the words meant what you'd think. Which was a triumph for language, but not for getting back home.
I once paid £5 for "speedy boarding" with Easyjet (the shame of it!) and in fact what it meant was I was allowed on the transfer bus first. This meant I was last off the bus, and therefore last on the plane, therefore teaching me never to speedy board again!
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