gentile = ethnonymic (was: Heard on The Judges: crack)

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Sat Apr 12 23:51:45 UTC 2008


On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 6:49 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:

> Speaking of adj > n confusion, here's a snippet from Safire's latest
> "On Language" column:
>
> ---
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/magazine/13wwln-safire-t.html
> Most people take the noun _perfect_ to mean "flawless, faultless,
> impeccable," as in the King James translation of God's description of
> Job as "a perfect and an upright man."

Oh sh.t, Safire at least knows better than THAT!

--
Mark Mandel

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