what does " fully one half " mean ?

[Myth27]

« Few diseases present greater difficulties in the way of diagnosis than malignant endocarditis, difficulties which in many cases are practically insurmountable. It is no disparagement to the many skilled physicians who have put their cases upon record to say that, in fully one-half the diagnosis was made post mortem. »

(William Osler, 1855)

what does fully one half mean? more than one half? no less than one half? just one half ?

[Peelee]

« Few diseases present greater difficulties in the way of diagnosis than malignant endocarditis, difficulties which in many cases are practically insurmountable. It is no disparagement to the many skilled physicians who have put their cases upon record to say that, in fully one-half the diagnosis was made post mortem. »

(William Osler, 1855)

what does fully one half mean? more than one half? no less than one half? just one half ?

One half, but in a scenario or situation where one half is a staggeringly bigger percent than it should be.

[Tvtyrant]

« Few diseases present greater difficulties in the way of diagnosis than malignant endocarditis, difficulties which in many cases are practically insurmountable. It is no disparagement to the many skilled physicians who have put their cases upon record to say that, in fully one-half the diagnosis was made post mortem. »

(William Osler, 1855)

what does fully one half mean? more than one half? no less than one half? just one half ?

In this case they are talking about literally half of patients that were discovered to have endocarditis it was only discovered after they died from it. The fully is because that is a really bad statistic, like the 5% of US drivers involved in a traffic collision annually.

[Xuc Xac]

"One half" means "50%".
"Only one half" means "50%, which isn't much".
"Fully one half" means "50%, which is a lot!"

[Rynjin]

It's also probably meant as a clarification that this is truly one half, not approximately; 25/50 rather than 24/50 or what have you.

[Khedrac]

It's also probably meant as a clarification that this is truly one half, not approximately; 25/50 rather than 24/50 or what have you.

This would be my reading of it as a native British speaker. However, in general it mens that the author is prone to use unhelpful emphasis that leads confusion (yours in thsi case).

One of my pet annoyances is adverts saying "up to half price" which technically means nothing is more than half price but that is not what they are trying to say.

[Peelee]

in general it mens that the author is prone to use unhelpful emphasis that leads confusion

Except the first three replies to this thread all explain how it is helpful emphasis.

[Iruka]

It's also probably meant as a clarification that this is truly one half, not approximately; 25/50 rather than 24/50 or what have you.

That's what I suspected as well, but on one of those translation aggregation sites it was translated as 'about one half' in some examples.

[Khedrac]

Except the first three replies to this thread all explain how it is helpful emphasis.

Is it? - the first two suggested a meaning that did not occur to me and is very different to the meaning in the third which is how I read it -result confusion which is not helpful.

[Peelee]

Is it? - the first two suggested a meaning that did not occur to me and is very different to the meaning in the third which is how I read it -result confusion which is not helpful.

Yes; my definition, Tvtyrant's definition, and Xuc Xac's definition are all the same, and all three are what the original author intended.

[Rynjin]

One of my pet annoyances is adverts saying "up to half price" which technically means nothing is more than half price but that is not what they are trying to say.

Over here in America, our version of this is "up to half OFF" which makes a lot more sense, yeah.

[tomandtish]

It's also probably meant as a clarification that this is truly one half, not approximately; 25/50 rather than 24/50 or what have you.

From what I've seen, it also can also mean that if there IS an aproximation, it's probably low. So 24/50 isn't fully 1/2 but 26/50 would be lumped in there.

But yeah, it also usually means that 1/2 is a LOT.

[RandomNPC]

I've always read "Fully one half" as "If it isn't half, it's because it's more than half, not less."