Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Word PSA

Lieu \Lieu\ (l[=u]), n. [F., OF. also liu, leu, lou, fr. L. locus place. See Local, Locus.] Place; room; stead; -- used only in the phrase in lieu of, that is, instead of.

Not too terribly long after 9/11, some friends received a note to the following effect (paraphrased from memory except for the phrase "in lieu of") from their kids' school's administration:

Dear parents,

In lieu of the war on terror, [school] is implementing the following measures:

[insert a bunch of silly security theatrics here]


I came across the same bizarre usage this morning in another context.

This one isn't complicated: "In lieu of ..." means "instead of ..." not "because of ..." or "due to ..."

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