"terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jun 29 22:02:15 UTC 2009


Hanley is speaking of French society, not French "high society."  His point
is that even as a victor, France was exceedingly demoralized by the First
World War.

There's also a difference between "terminally insidious" and "insidiously
terminal." i.e. "fatal."

JL
On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Victor <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I forgot "terminally vicious", "terminally boring", "terminally ugly"
> (also in the Urban Dictionary), "terminally beautiful" and "terminally
> pretty"--the latter, of course, courtesy of the Eagles (and the
> subsequent 1.6 million Google raw hits). The latter two have an
> additional benefit of being synonyms for "drop-dead gorgeous" ;-)
>
> There are even over 3000 ghit for "terminally cranky". On the other
> hand, I am wondering if the meaning of "terminally" in these cases may
> not be closer to "forever" rather than "utterly". At least, that would
> explain the use.
>
> OK... I now have real work to do...
>
>    VS-)
>
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