[Ads-l] to ------ drive (fill in blank)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Jul 21 14:02:27 UTC 2015


> On Jul 21, 2015, at 9:52 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Here's what a Republican "strategist" just told CNN...at least up to the
> point where my brain shut down:
> 
> "Donald Trump never apologizes for anything.  He just word vomits and
> then...."
> 
> I imagine that the now standard "babysit" is an early cousin of this
> tendency.

A cousin but I think not a parent.  I was going to mention "baby-sit" when we were discussing "drunk-drive", but then I realized that in the former case there's no obvious alternative option to the back-formed verb, since "baby-sitting" has a specific meaning that would be lost in, say "I baby-sit to supplement my income as a hedge fund investor":  "I sit for babies to supplement my income..."?  "sit on babies"?  Nope, only "baby-sit" will do.  For "drunk drive", as you were pointing out earlier, "drive drunk" isn't *that* distant, although if I'm right it's not quite the same conceptually.  I think "word-vomit" is somewhere in between, given the at least plausible alternative form, "He just vomits words and then..." 

> 
> A direct antecedent of "to reckless drive" is "to low-crawl," which is
> universal in the armed forces. I don't know if it antedates the VN War,
> though.

Interesting.  That one I (not having been in the military) haven't heard.

LH
> 
> Wilson?
> 
> JL
> 
> On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 5:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: to ------ drive (fill in blank)
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>>> So I don't think it's really "to ___-drive (fill in the blank)", unless
>> it gets you a new category of actions.
>> 
>> Actually the header was a challenge, not a theoretical postulate. I agree
>> that to "fast drive" is currently unlikely.
>> 
>> Or is it? From 2002:
>> 
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cgee.hamline.edu_rivers_MA_expedition_expedition2002_Alexjournal.htm-3D&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=c8e1vPoHnZHSrUZFlkxpWQErqeEwanMDMNbwmLu3obs&s=4R6S5jLZ4FAUSvBl-YVLt3TKNw69f6FCGiTbfYSHJoI&e= 
>> l
>> 
>> 
>> "We fast drove to Wabasha, our next stop."
>> 
>> From 2005:
>> pages.intnet.mu/servas/Archives/.../No%2013%20-%20June%202005.do...
>> 
>> In the end Demelza had to fast-drive home to fetch her TV.
>> 
>> 2007:
>> *www.roadtripamerica.com =E2=80=BA ... =E2=80=BA Topics =E2=80=BA
>> RoadTrip =
>> Field Reports*
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.roadtripamerica.com-20-3DE2-3D80-3DBA-20...-20-3DE2-3D80-3DBA-20Topics-20-3DE2-3D80-3DBA-0A&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=c8e1vPoHnZHSrUZFlkxpWQErqeEwanMDMNbwmLu3obs&s=fsdhP9PKiWB-awMtPhWgOTGke4bLPWMjQpZq1xT8R54&e= > Ro=
>> adTrip Field Reports>
>> 
>> We slow-drove through the heart of the park to see all the weird rock.
>> 
>> And the piece of resistance (2014): www.sau.com.au =E2=80=BA ...
>> =E2=80=BA =
>> Forced Induction
>> Performance
>> 
>> I had to reckless drive it to get any acceleration and when the torque was
>> there cops were the main problem because of the vastly illegal speed.
>> 
>> JL
>> 
>> On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 2:37 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:      Re: to ------ drive (fill in blank)
>>> 
>>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>>> 
>>> On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 1:03 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> in the minority
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Been there, lived that, agree with you entirely. Use hyphenation and use
>> =
>> it
>>> *correctly*, for heaven's sake! No more "You're up-to-date!" but, "An up
>> =
>> to
>>> date version..."! Bring back the comma! That unnecessary nanosecond of
>>> double-take really "bugs my head," as we said, back in the day of my lost
>>> youth.
>>> 
>>> Peeves being extremely idiosyncratic and essentially nonsense, I must add
>>> that dropped apostrophes don't annoy me nearly so much as missing commas
>>> do.
>>> 
>>> Youneverknow.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> -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 - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=c8e1vPoHnZHSrUZFlkxpWQErqeEwanMDMNbwmLu3obs&s=i6HeSNfKpw2JpH9tOvm9tjsmeKUGnXpg9lgiIq6byaU&e= 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --=20
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=c8e1vPoHnZHSrUZFlkxpWQErqeEwanMDMNbwmLu3obs&s=i6HeSNfKpw2JpH9tOvm9tjsmeKUGnXpg9lgiIq6byaU&e= 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=c8e1vPoHnZHSrUZFlkxpWQErqeEwanMDMNbwmLu3obs&s=i6HeSNfKpw2JpH9tOvm9tjsmeKUGnXpg9lgiIq6byaU&e= 

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