| 词组 | impeach |
| 释义 | impeach 1. When used with a preposition, impeach is usually used with for: • ... (who, by the way, was later impeached for corruption!) —Julian Huxley, Memories, 1970 • ... why should he be impeaching the Reverend George Barnard for exceptional futility? —Compton Mackenzie, The Parson's Progress, 1923 Once in a while, impeach is used with on: • ... attempted to impeach Culligan on a variety of counts of misfeasance —Richard R. Lingeman, N. Y. Times, 14 Feb. 1970 At one time impeach was used with of, but in modern prose that combination seldom occurs: • ... in the name of all the commons of England, impeached Thomas earl of Strafford ... of high treason —Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, 1647 (OED) 2. Look again at the citation from Julian Huxley in section 1 above saying that somebody "was later impeached for corruption." Was this person removed from office or simply charged with misconduct? This question is related to the central usage problem involving impeach. Theodore Bernstein in 1970 conducted a small poll in connection with a number of news reports about the threat of impeachment proceedings against Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court. He polled thirteen people, all of whom worked for the New York Times, and found that ten of them thought impeach meant "to remove from office." This is not a new understanding of the word. We have evidence of it going back to before World War I. But it is rarely found in print (our earliest printed evidence is from an editorial in the New York Sun in 1913). You could call the meaning "remove from office" a folk usage—it exists in people's minds, in their conversation (two of our earliest citations involve arguments about whether President Andrew Johnson was impeached or not), and on signs ("Impeach Earl Warren" signs used to be fairly common). Once in a while it pops up in print: • When the supreme court found several of Peron's early decrees illegal, he had his rubber-stamp congress impeach it, then filled the vacancies with his followers —Michael Scully, Reader's Digest, January 1956 If a great many people believe impeach means "to remove from office," then it does mean that. The interpretation is scarcely devoid of reason since removal from office is the whole point of impeachment. The meaning can be found in Webster's Third, but it is too rarely used in print to be entered in desk dictionaries. Still, a writer must reckon with its existence. If you need to use impeach in your writing and wish not to be misunderstood, you had better phrase your context carefully. |
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