Heard in Missouri: "but good!"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:30 PM -0800 12/19/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>I've known this all my life, mostly (maybe exclusively) in the
>contexts Larry suggests.
>
>   As for "and how!", it's surprising just how uncommon this has
>become in all communications media. Including speech.
>
>   JL

and how!  It's used several times in _Tender is the Night_, which
I've been listening to on audiobook, and I notice it each time.
Unlike "but good!", it's not (or was not) restricted to contexts of
unwanted consequence.

LH



>
>"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
>Subject: Re: Heard in Missouri: "but good!"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>let me try this again; it slipped out of my grasp the first time...
>
>On Dec 19, 2007, at 9:18 AM, David Donnell wrote:
>
>>  Question about an expression I just heard: "but good!"
>>
>>  ... The expression never registered with me before, although it
>>  sounded
>>  familiar rolling off her tongue; it apparently means something like
>>  "and how!"
>
>note that it really won't do to define one opaque idioms by another.
>
>>
>>  Is anyone familiar with this critter?
>
>it's in the AHD Dictionary of Idioms (1997):
>
>Emphatically, thoroughly, as in Ruth decided to clean up the whole
>yard but good. The word but in this colloquialism functions as an
>intensive. Also see _and how_. x
>
>so far as i know, it's general american. colloquial, but widespread.
>
>arnold
>
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