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New Addressed here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infer#usage-1

tl;dr: infer to mean 'indicate' is fine, but it has been tarred with the same feathers as 'suggest/hint'. Even that is a relatively recent development compared to how long both meanings have been in use.

Sir Thomas More is the first writer known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses in 1528 (with infer meaning "to deduce from facts" and imply meaning "to hint at"). He is also the first to have used infer in a sense close in meaning to imply (1533). Both of these uses of infer coexisted without comment until some time around the end of World War I. Since then, the "indicate" and "hint or suggest" meanings of infer have been frequently condemned as an undesirable blurring of a useful distinction. The actual blurring has been done by the commentators. The "indicate" sense of infer, descended from More's use of 1533, does not occur with a personal subject. When objections arose, they were to a use with a personal subject (which is now considered a use of the "suggest, hint" sense of infer). Since dictionaries did not recognize this use specifically, the objectors assumed that the "indicate" sense was the one they found illogical, even though it had been in respectable use for four centuries. The actual usage condemned was a spoken one never used in logical discourse. At present the condemned "suggest, hint" sense is found in print chiefly in letters to the editor and other informal prose, not in serious intellectual writing. The controversy over the "suggest, hint" sense has apparently reduced the frequency with which the "indicate" sense of infer is used.


Also, if it was good enough for Shakespeare: "this doth infer the zeal I had to see him"
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Collapse Edited by malraux June 25, 2020, 06:57:04 PM EDT
Addressed here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infer#usage-1

Sir Thomas More is the first writer known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses in 1528 (with infer meaning "to deduce from facts" and imply meaning "to hint at"). He is also the first to have used infer in a sense close in meaning to imply (1533). Both of these uses of infer coexisted without comment until some time around the end of World War I. Since then, the "indicate" and "hint or suggest" meanings of infer have been frequently condemned as an undesirable blurring of a useful distinction. The actual blurring has been done by the commentators. The "indicate" sense of infer, descended from More's use of 1533, does not occur with a personal subject. When objections arose, they were to a use with a personal subject (which is now considered a use of the "suggest, hint" sense of infer). Since dictionaries did not recognize this use specifically, the objectors assumed that the "indicate" sense was the one they found illogical, even though it had been in respectable use for four centuries. The actual usage condemned was a spoken one never used in logical discourse. At present the condemned "suggest, hint" sense is found in print chiefly in letters to the editor and other informal prose, not in serious intellectual writing. The controversy over the "suggest, hint" sense has apparently reduced the frequency with which the "indicate" sense of infer is used.


Also, if it was good enough for Shakespeare: "this doth infer the zeal I had to see him"
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
New Well Done! (I'll nearly-always bow to successfully pellucid argumentation :-)
[Drat.. I'd thought it was 1527, when More wasn't yet {fatally..} a thorn-in-side re. allegiance to Der KInk]
--new research says I was off 9 months and 4 days; mea culpa.. ;^>

Must correct Otrona /CPM floppy, by June 31.
     Time for the Veepstakes! - (malraux) - (55)
         if Joe coughs out, who has the chops for a second term win should be the answer -NT - (boxley)
         Simplest take, then.. - (Ashton) - (1)
             At this point only one thing matters - (drook)
         Watching Kamala Harris during the Kavanaugh confirmation clinched it for me. - (a6l6e6x) - (48)
             It's essential to energise the youth vote - (pwhysall) - (3)
                 Unarguable that.. a Sqreaker all the --> way to ... the last hours.{sob} -NT - (Ashton)
                 Rachel Bitecofer says things are so polarized in the USA now that... - (Another Scott) - (1)
                     The numbers don't lie - (drook)
             I like Kamala too, but... - (Another Scott) - (5)
                 But who's better? - (pwhysall) - (3)
                     dick_nixon likes Warren. - (Another Scott) - (1)
                         Re: dick_nixon likes Warren. - (pwhysall)
                     I like bottoms - (boxley)
                 She's certainly a lightweight when it comes to the English language (see below) -NT - (mmoffitt)
             There was one thing about her questioning I found profoundly troubling. - (mmoffitt) - (37)
                 My God! That's the most disturbing thing I've ever heard! -NT - (drook) - (17)
                     I KNOW!!1 -NT - (Another Scott) - (16)
                         If we've learned nothing from Covid, we should have learned that incompetence kills. -NT - (mmoffitt) - (15)
                             Your standard for incompetent is ... not useful? Yeah, not useful. -NT - (drook) - (14)
                                 Are you really that thick? Or are you just playing. - (mmoffitt) - (13)
                                     Yes, words matter ... but *those* words are the ones you're hung up on? -NT - (drook) - (12)
                                         As I said in the preamble, my father was an English teacher. - (mmoffitt) - (11)
                                             That's a great endorsement - (drook)
                                             You're an odd duck, Mike. - (malraux) - (9)
                                                 Merriam-Webster recently admitted that: Yes, they Do make MIstreaks (too) - (Ashton) - (8)
                                                     Infer can be used active - (drook) - (5)
                                                         Sorry, but.. [edited] - (Ashton) - (4)
                                                             One of us doesn't know what "passive voice" means - (drook) - (3)
                                                                 Mc Sweeneys.. unimaginable a few decades past.. - (Ashton) - (2)
                                                                     I think you're saying ... you liked it? :-) - (drook) - (1)
                                                                         That line is indeed, Boffo :-0 - (Ashton)
                                                     Addressed here: - (malraux) - (1)
                                                         Well Done! (I'll nearly-always bow to successfully pellucid argumentation :-) - (Ashton)
                 Am I to imply from your comment - (rcareaga) - (14)
                     Not at all. - (mmoffitt) - (12)
                         Whoosh -NT - (drook)
                         Re: Not at all. - (pwhysall) - (9)
                             Am I a prosecutor or running for high office? No. - (mmoffitt) - (8)
                                 Ahem - (drook) - (2)
                                     I took that as a joke. -NT - (mmoffitt) - (1)
                                         Correctly. -NT - (rcareaga)
                                 It's not. It's a slip of the tongue. - (pwhysall) - (4)
                                     I'm not trying to convince anyone. - (mmoffitt) - (3)
                                         The word has been used that way for 400 years -NT - (malraux) - (1)
                                             As has a certain song, "I Wish I Was in Dixie, Hurrah! Hurrah!", er ;^> - (Ashton)
                                         So, you did not sense that she had second thoughts after she said it? - (a6l6e6x)
                         You're trolling us, aren't you? Well done. -NT - (Another Scott)
                     I see what you did there. -NT - (Ashton)
                 Oh, ffs. - (pwhysall) - (2)
                     politically prosecuting unwinnable cases to get elected is a little worse -NT - (boxley) - (1)
                         ..now that was Cute truthiness :-) ..try to Go-->there ... more often(?) -NT - (Ashton)
                 (Always a pleasure) to acknowledge a cohort ..in One's Outlier-Club, oft despised by masses :-) - (Ashton)
         for Susan Rice - (lincoln) - (2)
             Quite a good Atta-girl! pitch (mayhap 'She' needs to be darker hued..?) considering The Times. -NT - (Ashton)
             She's more than qualified. - (a6l6e6x)

If you're going to be paranoid, don't stop at half measures.
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