It's amaze

Amy West medievalist at W-STS.COM
Wed Dec 11 12:46:29 UTC 2013


On 12/11/13 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>> Adjectival "amaze" is also the basis for "amazeballs", a contender in
>> >the Most Unnecessary category at ADS WOTY 2011, covered in the Spring
>> >2012 installment of "Among the New Words":http://bit.ly/ATNW87-1
> Thank you for this kind follow-up. I saw "amaze balls" and "amazeballs" when Googling but thought it was some sort of product name based on the capitals often used.
>
> Based on Jack's jaded response, I doubt this is going to catch on, but it seems analogous to "invite" for "invitation" and other changes that have been discussed here, and it seems possible as a precursor to other -ing adjective shortenings. A finding of "amaze" to mean "amazed" as the other part of this equation would also be interesting, though other processes can cause the -d drop, so diagnosis would not be easy.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
A fellow English adjunct, who's younger than me, just ranted on FB about
hearing Malcolm MacDowell say "amaze balls" (as she wrote it) on a TV
commercial (Sprint?). My colleague was apoplectic. Does this count as
catching on?

I don't understand the -balls suffix.

---Amy West

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