unfoil; annuls

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Annuls" seems clearly to be a misspelling and misapprehension of "annals,"
as Larry notes. But "annals"  in the usual sense doesn't apply here, no
matter how spelled.

Here it seems to mean something like 'stages or vicissitudes,' to a writer
with extremely limited powers of expression, considering his or her
job.  The phrase "in the annals of X" is so cliche' in entertainment
writing that it presumably popped unbidden into the writer's mind and
seemed "good enough" because he didn't know exactly what an "annal/ annul"
was in the first place.

JL




On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: unfoil; annuls
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5/28/2012 11:58 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > From Knology's current on-demand movie summaries. Go figure:
> >
> >"3  MUSKETEERS, THE (2011) D'Artagnan (Logan Lernan) and three of France's
> >most elite warriors battle to unfoil a conspiracy."
>
> "Unfold", with a sense of "uncover, disclose, reveal"?
>
>
> >"SPORK (2011) A film about a pink-cheeked, frizzy-haired outcast named
> >SPORK who is trying to navigate her way through the annuls of Junior High.
> >Starring Savannah Stehlin, Sydney, Park, Rachel G. Fox."
>
> The yearly chronicles of expulsions?
>
> Joel
>
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