[Ads-l] cowardous, adj.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D.-Pa.) on Deadline White House the other day:

"Mr. McCarthy is calculating. He is cowardous."

JL

On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 7:25 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R.-Ill.) on Morning Joe today:
>
> "That was a cowardous vote for those twenty-one Republicans."
>
> Prob. orig. sugg. by a misapprehension of "That is cowardice!"
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 7:04 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I doubt the EME usage ever went away entirely. The homophone "cowardice"
>> encourages it, and it may sound smarter to some than "cowardly."
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> =
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 8:50 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> If you go to the end of the hits, Google says, on page 16, that it has
>>> omitted similar entries. If you have those displayed anyway, it ends on
>>> page 33 with 326 hits.
>>>
>>> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
>>> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>>>
>>> > On 4 Feb 2021, at 14:05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > And almost 9,000 hits for plain "cowardous."
>>> >
>>> > JL
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 5:04 PM Jonathan Lighter <
>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> OED has this "obsolete" syn. for "cowardly" from 1480-1608.
>>> >>
>>> >> Noah Webster had it in 1828, with the note "Not used."
>>> >>
>>> >> 2021 Rep. Barbara Lee (D.-Calif.) on_Deadline White House_ (MSNBC TV)
>>> >> (Feb. 4):  I believe in many respects that the Republicans acted in a
>>> >> cowardous manner. ... They are spineless and acting in a cowardous
>>> way.
>>> >>
>>> >> Google reveals 300 hits for "a cowardice [sic] manner" and bare
>>> handful
>>> >> for "a cowardous [sic] way."
>>> >>
>>> >> JL
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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