Angsty

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Wednesday, January 16, 2002 11:01 am +0800 Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> At 10:27 AM -0500 1/16/02, Baker, John wrote:
>>         It doesn't seem to have made it into the dictionaries yet (well,
>>         I checked AHD4 and the OED), but its meaning and usefulness are
>> obvious.  From a story on E! Online today:
>>
>>         >> Felicity, starring Russell as angsty New York college gal
>>         >> Felicity
>> Porter and costarring Scott Speedman and Scott Foley, has had its brushes
>> with cancellation since its 1998 debut. <<
>>
> Useful, but subject to misparsing (with final stress and long "y").

Contrasts with 'angst-ridden'.  Sylvia Plath was 'angst-ridden'--Felicity
is simply angsty.  Does this work:

young person : angsty :: middle-aged person : neurotic?

Lynne

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA in Applied Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320