Re: USAGE: "deduct" as synonym for "deduce"

On 10/26/06, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> Never heard of such a usage. Are examples given? Maybe it's Washington DC
> committee-speak.
Well, I was looking it up because a correspondent referred to
"deducting" something from a web page.  As he's a non-native speaker,
I assumed it was an error, but looked it up anyway, and there you go.

> "*****They will deduce $10 from your paycheck"
> "*****Sherlock deducted that Moriarty was the culprit"
Note that I was speaking of the latter; I have never seen any examples
of the former, nor do my dictionaries list "deduct/subtract" as a
meaning for "deduce".

The -duc[et] words do seem to form a rather odd constellation, though.

When you produce /pro'dus/, the act is production and the result is a
product.  (Except when the result is produce /'produs/, I suppose...)
There is no such word as *producement.

When you induce someone to do something, that's an inducement.  When
you induce current in a wire, that's induction.  When you induct
someone into a group, that's also induction.  There is no noun
definition for either "induct" or "induce".

The act of either deducing or deducting is deduction. What you deduce
is also a deduction.  So is what you deduct.  There's no such word as
*deducement, nor are there nouns "deduct" or "deduce".

Things can be conducive or conductive; how you conduct /k@n'dVkt/
yourself is your conduct /'kandVkt/, not your *conducement or your
conduction, although a wire may participate in conduction...

Thank goodness there's no such word as "seduct", and you can only
"reduct" by replacing plumbing fixtures...

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>