Good Thing

[Arnold Zwicky]

i would guess that all of this goes back to earlier public
school [british] talk.  certainly, it figures *very* prominently
in the hilarious 1931 book 1006 and All That by w.c. sellar and
r.j. yeatman.  hardly a page goes by without a Good Thing, a
Bad Thing, a Good Man, a Bad Man, or a Good/Bad King/Queen
"Edward VII was thus a very Good King, besides being a Good
Thing...").  i don't think sellar & yeatman invented it, but
they certainly made it Common Currency for at least a
generation.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)