"bring it on!"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jun 14, 2008, at 2:29 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

quoting Wilson Gray:

> BTW, how can anyone claim that some word or phrase has never been used
> before, simply because he himself has never heard or read it?

Ben:

>
> To be fair, Arnold was simply passing along a query from Bruce
> Webster. I highly doubt that Arnold, who has written extensively about
> the Recency Illusion, would make any such claim.

indeed.  my reaction is to say that i have two courses: not to pass on
any such queries to ADS-L, because they will be viewed as ignorant and
thoughtless (and to explain this to my correspondents), or to hedge
the queries with elaborate disclaimers about my beliefs and knowledge,
my correspondent's beliefs and knowledge, and so on.

my inclination is to say: fuck the list. i don't need this grief,

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org