[Ads-l] "smacks loudly"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri Aug 21 13:16:40 UTC 2015


We lexicographers call it "poetic license," sudcategory "humor."

JL

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 11:55 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "smacks loudly"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It should be
>
> "smacks strongly"
>
> This _smack_ is the one cognate with German _schmecken_ "taste (good)," and
> not the onomatopoetic _smack!_.
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
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