[Ads-l] Heard

[Laurence Horn]

FWIW, I just tried checked “ten-year anniversary” vs. “tenth-year anniversary”.  The former has 440 actual G-hits, the latter 190.  


> On Mar 16, 2018, at 3:37 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Good point, Larry - and therefore shouldn't seem odd.  Of course it is also conventionalized where the others you listed are not including seventh-year itch.
> 
> 
> ----------------------------
> MARGARET E WINTERS
> Former Provost
> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI  48202
> 
> mewinters at wayne.edu
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 3:28 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Heard
> 
>> On Mar 16, 2018, at 3:17 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
>> 
>> Or, perversely, the second-month anniversary falls in February and the ninth-day wonder comes after eight ordinary days.  I get a real meaning differences for those two.  First night jitters is clearly ordinal, of course, and first-night stand happens 1 January? the first of every month?.
>> 
>> 
>> Seventh-year itch pragmatically comes to the same thing as seven-year itch in that it is supposedly what happens in the seventh year of marriage - I have never noticed the oddity of 'seven year itch' which does not last seven years.
>> 
> 
> Not that odd assuming it’s the itch you get after seven years, given how flexible English compounds are (an A B constrained if at all just to being a B that has something to do with A).  Compare “margarita hangover”, a hangover you get after margaritas, or a "prison release" (release from or after prison), or “storm aftermath".
> 
> 
>> 
>> Inquiring minds...,
>> 
>> Margaret
>> 
>> 
>> ----------------------------
>> MARGARET E WINTERS
>> Former Provost
>> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
>> Wayne State University
>> Detroit, MI  48202
>> 
>> mewinters at wayne.edu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 2:39 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Heard
>> 
>> Next:  The seventh-year itch.  Or, if you prefer, the first-night stand. (First-night jitters have to come from somewhere.) And the ninth-day wonder.
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> On Mar 16, 2018, at 12:10 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> "second-month anniversary" vs. the more-common "two-month anniversary"
>>> 
>>> --
>>> -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
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> American Dialect Society<http://www.americandialect.org/>
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