<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Re: act out</TITLE></HEAD>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I've grown up with both "show out" and "show off".</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Show off" is doing something that you would be proud of; "show out" is more or less the same as "act out".</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> Charles Doyle<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tue 3/2/2010 8:14 AM<BR><B>To:</B> ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: act out<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
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<P><FONT size=2>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------<BR>Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU><BR>Poster: Charles Doyle <cdoyle@UGA.EDU><BR>Subject: Re: act out<BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>I'm wondering if the "popular" use of "act out" is more prevelant in some regions than others. I have heard it all my life--but I have also heard "show out" all my life; I was grown before I realized that "show off" is the more common expression in places where I am not.<BR><BR>--Charlie<BR><BR><BR><BR>---- Original message ----<BR>>Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 08:51:00 -0500<BR>>From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000@GMAIL.COM>)<BR>><BR>>Not in OED (if you can believe it). It's been in popular as well as<BR>>psychological use for decades.<BR>><BR>>But never mind that. In discussing the recent incident at SeaWorld, an<BR>>animal expert on CNN talked about the likelihood that any captive killer<BR>>whale could begin to "act out" at any time.<BR>><BR>>Just how an animal might "act out" in human psychological terms I don't<BR>>know. I suppose I would have said, "revert to type," "become enraged," "harm<BR>>its trainer," "turn," etc., long before it would have occurred to me to say<BR>>"act out."<BR>><BR>>"Act up," of course, is far too mild to adequately cover what happened.<BR>><BR>>JL<BR><BR>------------------------------------------------------------<BR>The American Dialect Society - <A href="http://www.americandialect.org/" target=_blank>http://www.americandialect.org/</A><BR></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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