[Ads-l] Facebookery: _to higher_ "to raise"

[Laurence Horn]

Well, as they say, the meaning is “more usually expressed by _r[a]ise_”…


> On Jul 16, 2018, at 3:37 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> So, do you think that it's finally going to catch on?
> 
> On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 10:54 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> Once again, OED is on the case:
>> 
>> Higher, v.
>> 
>> 1. trans. To make higher (in various senses); to raise, elevate. Opposed
>> to and frequently in conjunction with LOWER v.
>> More usually expressed by raise.
>> 
>> 1592   in Acts Privy Council (1901) XXII. 553   Yt ys alledged that the
>> bridge havinge ben highered duringe the mynorytie of Sir Edward Denney..was
>> latelie taken downe.
>> 1703   G. Garden tr. A. Bourignon Light risen in Darkness iii. i. 6
>> These Men understand not the Scriptures.., weighing me in their false
>> Scales which have no just weights, but are higher'd or lower'd according to
>> their own grandeur.
>> 1794   D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 55   The
>> upper-plate has a dove-tail on the back, that slides up and down in a
>> groove..and, by a staff, made fast to its front, it is highered or lowered.
>> 1831   Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 29 980   Our high opinion..has not been
>> lowered..It has—pardon the expression—been highered.
>> 1861   H. Mayhew London Labour (new ed.) III. 150/1   I highered the rope
>> in my yard.
>> 1908   Rep. Select Comm. Home Work 130/2 in Parl. Papers (H.C. 246) VIII.
>> 1   The employer sees what she has priced it at. If it does not suit him he
>> lowers it or highers it.
>> 2012   Birmingham Post (Nexis) 27 Sept. 21   Egress [is] made easier for
>> the driver by the steering wheel being automatically highered when the
>> engine is switched off and lowered again when it is started.
>> 
>> 2. intr. To become higher, to rise; (also) to allow of being highered. Cf.
>> earlier highering adj.
>> rare.
>> 
>> 1889   Birmingham Daily Post 30 Sept. 6/4   Quotations for forge and
>> foundry bars are highering.
>> 1905   Timber & Wood-working Machinery 18 Nov. 871/2   The table highers
>> and lowers for various depths of mortise.
>> 
>> [Suggesting, perhaps, that the transitive version is NOT rare?]
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> On Jul 16, 2018, at 12:29 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> "we have the new train _to higher_ the crime rate"
>>> 
>>> Probably some kind of brain-fart and not real language-change.
>>> --
>>> -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
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org