Neil Ellwood
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:36:31 -0700, Savageduck wrote:

Savageduck
On 2014-03-28 16:08:51 +0000, Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> said:

Tony Cooper
On 28 Mar 2014 06:23:43 GMT, Sandman <mr@sandman.net>wrote:

For example, a while back you said you provided an "onslaught" of substantiation about something or other. I accept "onslaught" as a word, and it's in the dictionary, but not with the meaning you seemed to have in mind.

Sandman
Yes, I know you're ignorant about the word "onslaught".

onslaught noun - a fierce or destructive attack: a series of onslaughts on the citadel. - a large quantity of people or things that is difficult to cope with

Note, particularly, example number 2.

Tony Cooper
If you found that definition, and still feel that "onslaught" is the right word choice to describe a few cites of supposed "substantiation", then your case is more hopeless than I first thought.

Savageduck
Perhaps a virtual inundation of substantiations was meant to imply a metaphoric onslaught. ...maybe a flood, or even a plethora of substantiations might end up described so?

Neil Ellwood
The word 'onslaught' is just one of a myriad number that have a dictionary definition but is more often used in many other ways. I have 2 dictionaries and both have the same definition ( one was bought for me in 1944 (Nuttalls) and the other is a Readers Digest concise from about 1998.

Just because a word has a regular dictionary definition does not mean that any other meaning is wrong, thus the way onslaught is often (even usually) used is to mean the start or beginning of something.

Language matures and onslaught has been like this for as long as I can remember.