bounty = "splendid abundance"

[Wilson Gray]

I concede the point.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 8:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: bounty = "splendid abundance"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Nope.
>
> The 2008 ex. refers (it seems to me) to the wonderfully large number of
> characters, not to anybody's liberality or generosity.
>
> Likewise, back in the '60s, _Playboy_ often described its Playmates and
> others as "the bountiful Miss Potrzebie," etc.  Not because they were
> munificent but because they were abundantly endowed.
>
> Cf. the more traditional, "a bountiful harvest."  Generous in a sense, yes,
> but unless you already knew the word it would seem to mean "splendidly
> abundant" or, as M-W has it (sense 2) "given or provided abundantly."
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: bounty = "splendid abundance"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Isn't this 4.a., "gracious liberality, munificence"?  E.g., "1750
>> JOHNSON Rambl. No. 17 {page}4 Every other satisfaction which the
>> bounty of Providence has scattered over life." or "1856 FROUDE Hist.
>> Eng. (1858) I. iv. 302 Many of these people..were dependent on his
>> bounty."?  Or 5.b. "a boon, gift"?
>>
>> Joel
>>
>> At 1/15/2009 05:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >Not in OED:
>> >
>> >2008 _The Top 10 Intelligent Designs_ [
>> >http://www.livescience.com/history/top10_intelligent_designs-1.html]:
>> With
>> >its bounty of brawny, barrel-chested gods and buxom goddesses, the ancient
>> >Norse religion of the Scandinavian and Germanic countries is truly the
>> >creation myth for fans of both pro wrestling and heavy metal music.
>> >
>> >JL
>> >
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