[Ads-l] wild-ass vs. wild-assed

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Wed Nov 2 16:34:39 UTC 2016


Mark Liberman posted about this on Language Log.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=29154

On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 7:54 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> We've talked about "-ass" vs. "-assed" before...
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-June/
> thread.html#142887
>
> ...and now it's in the news.
>
> In a U.S. Senate debate in Kentucky, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray spoke of
> Sen. Rand Paul's "wild-assed philosophies and theories," though news
> outlets tended to transcribe it as "wild-ass." WFPL's Laura Ellis
> talked to Univ. of Kentucky linguist Jennifer Cramer about it.
>
> http://wfpl.org/go-linguist-dissects-jim-grays-wild-ass-zinger/
>
>
>

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