Talk:tantamount

Obsolete?

If it's considered "obsoloete" as this entry states, how is that it's still so frequently used? Can it be still considered obsolete if it's still frequently found in current news sources? -- OlEnglish 07:04, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

The verb and noun senses are obsolete, but not the adjective. The adjective is all that is seen in current sources. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 07:07, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Does "equivalent" really convey the full sense of the word?

Virtually every usage I've ever seen, including the excellent examples in the entry, contain a sense of "almost equivalent", so close as to be virtually indistinguishable, and maybe an implication that it's so close that it should drive the same result (e.g., "tantamount to treason"), but still somewhere just short of fully "equivalent". Shouldn't the definition be revised to reflect that nuance? To me, saying it means exactly the same thing as "equivalent" misses a crucial connotation that we get from a truly magical and useful word. Itsgeneb (talk) 22:08, 11 April 2012 (UTC)