incredulous

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

How is this a tskably problematical usage? The use of adverbs in such environments to indicate the speaker's attitude is normal English, e.g., "l find this sort of stodgy heroism discouragingly indecent."

Unless the perceived problem is merely the  trivial absence of a definition for the obsolete sense of the adverb, JL's blue nose sniffs here at a nonexistent solecism.

Joyous Noel to all!


------Original Message------
From: Jonathan Lighter
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: [ADS-L] incredulous
Sent: Dec 24, 2010 12:19 PM

OED has this ("not to be believed; incredible") from Will S. in 1616, with
steady use through 1750.

Incredulously, it's marked "Obs."

Tsk.

More tsk: no corresponding def. for "incredulously."

1943 (May 1) in James Agee _Film Writing and Selected Journalism_ (N.Y.:
Library of America, 2005) 49: I find this sort of stodgy heroism
incredulously indecent.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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