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Very clever use of the word travail. Was the irony intentional, gwern? (See the tail end of the definitions ;) travail noun tra·vail tr-vāl tra-vāl 1a: work

Very clever use of the word travail. Was the irony intentional, gwern? (See the tail end of the definitions ;) travail noun tra·vail tr-vāl tra-vāl 1a: work especially of a painful or laborious nature : TOIL 1b: a physical or mental exertion or piece of work : TASK, EFFORT 1c: AGONY, TORMENT 2a: LABOR, CHILDBIRTH

gwern 4y ago
(Less than intentional, more than accidental. I know the multiple meanings, so it came easily to mind by priming. That sort of unintentional wordplay is a bit of a bad habit, really, when it leads you to use obsolete vocab - the other day someone was asking me if I had made a typo for 'way' when I wrote 'X is in some wise deficient'. I didn't, but it's not like I was trying to be clear either.)