#239

A potentially fatal jellyfish-like creature has made a “very unusual” appearance on a Manx beach.
The Portuguese man-of-war was found near Langness in Castletown on Wednesday.

BBC News Online, October 19, 2017

Yet another Portuguese man o’war story. The problem with this one is that although ‘fatal’ is an adjective meaning deadly, it is not an exact synonym and applies only to events or actions, not to animals. You could have a ‘fatal error’, a ‘fatal accident’ or a ‘fatal snake-bite’, but not a ‘fatal snake’.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.