Brief Stand In

[emane]

economist.com/news/leaders/21564846-south-africa-sliding-downhill-while-much-rest-continent-clawing-its-way-up

"Since Mr Mandela retired in 1999, the country has been woefully led. For nine years it endured Thabo Mbeki’s race-tinted prickliness, so different from Mr Mandela’s big-hearted inclusiveness. Mr Mbeki’s denial of the link between HIV and AIDS cost millions of lives. After he was deposed by his party in 2008, there was a brief stand-in, Kgalema Motlanthe, before Jacob Zuma took over the presidency in 2009."

Is the phrase "a brief stand-in" poorly written? A stand-in is a person that temporarily does a job, not an activity. The adjective "brief" means lasting for a short time, and should apply to an activity only. Or could "stand-in" mean an act of standing-in?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's not poorly written. A "stand-in" is the person and also the name of the job. The person doing that job might have been a "temporary stand-in", a "permanent stand-in" or, as said here, a "brief stand-in". It's the same as a temporary stand-in but particularly draws attention to the fact that the person did the job for only a brief period.

 

[Rover_KE]

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