easy/eager

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/7/04 2:50:00 PM, jparish at SIUE.EDU writes:


> On 7 Mar 2004 at 11:21, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> > elizabeth zwicky noted the following from Robert Pastor on the 2/28/04
> > Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR:
> >
> >    It's not a government with which the international community will be
> > easy to deal.
> <snip discussion>
> 
> Could it be that "easy" is being used as an antonym for "uneasy"?
> 
> Jim Parish
> 

This makes sense to me: EASY in the sense of AT-EASE, as in "It's not a 
government with which the international community will be at ease to deal." Both 
sound better if the "with" gets displaced to the end, and if the infinitive is 
changed to a participle: 

"It's not a government which the international community will be at ease to 
deal with"
< "It's not a government which the international community will be at ease 
dealing with."