Re:Reuters photographer was killed after being left behind i...
by andrewzah on Tuesday August 24, 2021 @02:07PM
(#28292692)
I am not denying the existence of this or any other definition. You're arguing with yourself on that front.
We're stating the fact that that specific usage/definition is not really used at all anymore, to the point that "intercourse" is generally used for the other definition of sexual activity. "Public intercourse" is significantly likely more to be read as "public sex", rather than the intended meaning of "public discourse".
It is perfectly reasonable to suggest a correction, because communication with people is about understanding... not being technically correct to win an argument.
You can check out the usage of these two bigrams via google ngram yourself: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=public+interco...
You have to be deliberately not looking:
https://books.google.hn/books?id=T0E8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA...
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25119912?seq=1#metadata_info_ta...
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1852-06-24/debates/dd891...
These comments about this common word are more suited to the middle school lunchroom than a forum such as this.