vivacious

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Wed Jul 8 15:50:25 UTC 2009


NYT Magazine, 7/5/09, Mark Leibovitch, "On the Coast of Crazy" (about
Gavin Newsom), p. 29:

   He is vivacious and something of a political thrill-seeker ...

my eye was caught by "vivacious", which sounded a bit odd to me used
of a man.  NOAD2 says:
   (esp. of a woman) attractively lively and animated

(AHD4 and the OED have no note.)

raw google webhits have "she is vivacious" slightly ahead of "he is
vivacious", but only slightly.  and the relevant OED cites are pretty
well balanced.  so i'm not sure why i (and NOAD2) associate
"vivacious" with women more than men.

arnold

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