N-looking

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, "(ugly-assed,) King-Kong-y-looking stud" sounds fine to me. The
verb doesn't have to be "looking." It could be, e.g.
"pigeon-toed-walking chick" or
"not-even-in-the-same-state-so-far-off-key-singing choirmaster." The
Bee Gees sang "Jive-Talking" as a noun, but they could as easily have
sung "stone, lying-assed,  jive-talking player," or some such.

Have you ever come across stuff like,

"I talk loud as I draw a crowd!"

i.e.

"I'll talk as loudly as I choose to talk, even if, by so doing, I
cause a crowd to gather to see what the problem is!"

-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 Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: N-looking
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:24 AM -0500 1/28/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>In Wilson's example, "King-Kongy" strikes me as nearly (though not quite)
>>impossible, and "King-Kong-like" pedantic. Both, BTW, would be less precise,
>>which is probably one good reason why the construction first appeared and
>>continues to spread.
>>
>
> I vote for "King-Kongly".
>
> LH
>
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