an unexpected comparative

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Oct 12 02:29:57 UTC 2009


Oh, now I get it. Your daughter said "butch-er," thinking [[butch]er],
but you heard "butcher" and thought [butcher]! :-)

One never knows, do one?

-Wilson

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      an unexpected comparative
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I ran into a couple of friends tonight when my daughter and I were
> picking up a takeout meal. She recognized N and R -- a long-married
> female couple -- but didn't remember which one was which. As we were
> carrying our meals home, she said,
>
> Daughter: "I'm sorry, I'm terrible with names. Which one was N and which was R?"
> Me: "So am I. When I first met them I had to use the mnemonic that N's
> name is longer than R's. N is more heavyset; R is slender."
> D: "Ah, N is a little butcher."
> M: "What?!!"
> D: "She wears her hair short, and..."
> M: [LOL in the middle of the street]
> D: "What's so funny?"
> M: "I didn't hear that as a comparative at all!!"
>
> Mark A. Mandel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-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

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