"finesse", the adjective

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Aug 10 23:43:12 UTC 2012


Thanks for the -y, Larry.  My Roget's isn't very good on
suffixes.  In fact, it doesn't index them at all.

Joel

At 8/10/2012 11:24 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>On Aug 10, 2012, at 11:05 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > At 8/10/2012 10:37 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >> ...
> >> But as noted, the meaning is entirely different--power teams or
> >> offenses may not be powerful, or vice versa, since "power" here,
> >> like "finesse", refers to a style of play, not the effectiveness of
> >> the playing.
> >
> > I agree the meaning is different -- I meant only that I would wonder
> > whether the writer actually meant, and should have used, "powerful".
> >
> > There isn't any "finesseful" yet, but perhaps there should
> > be.  (Which unlike "powerful" would be unlikely to transfer to "the
> > effectiveness of playing".)  Or "finessish"?
> >
>I think the word is "finessy":
>
>The Raps should be deeper than last year too, with scoring pg Jarret
>Jack and Reggie Evans bringing a measure of grit to a very finessy team.
>
>For all the 2+ saves and power weapons, it's a very finessy army.
>
>woodies are a different story but also not forgiving and very
>finessy and limited in methods of play.
>
>
>--although "very finesse" occurs as well, indeed much more
>frequently, where "finesse" must be an adjective rather than noun:
>
>We are back to being a very finesse team.
>
>Lopez is a very finesse center.
>
>She has off the ball awareness and is a very finesse player.
>
>He's still a very finesse player & its irritating watching his style of play.
>==========
>(Note that it occurs in both positive and negative contexts.)
>
>LH
>------------------------------------------------------------
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