Oh, Boy! What a mess...
Overheard recently: "The proximal tourniquet time was 3 minutes." Really??? Proximal (adj.) means located near to the center, or near the point of attachment. Proximate (adj.) means closest in relationship, immediate, as in "The deer crossing the street was the proximate cause of the accident. When discussing or measuring time, the correct word is approximate (adj.). In the case of the overheard sentence, the correct adjective should have been approximate.
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