Slay, ?slayed?

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 4, 2004, at 8:11 AM, James A. Landau wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Slay, ?slayed?
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>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> Newsweek  November 8, 2004 p.56
>>
>> "He simply walked onstage and slayed his rivals...."
>>
>> This is at least the third time this year that I've seen "slew"
>> replaced in print by "slayed." Language change in progress?
>> (I'm ignoring "walked onstage" vs. "walked onto the stage.")
>
> What's wrong with "walked onstage"?  In stage jargon at least,
> "onstage" and
> "offstage" are perfectly legitimate adverbs that also double as
> adjectives.
> MWCD11 lists them both as "adv or adj" with surprisingly late dates of
> 1925 and
> 1921 respectively.  Do you have any trouble with "walked downhill"?

Well, I prefer "walked downdale." But no, I don't have any trouble with
"walked downhill." Hey, wait! Didn't I say that I didn't want to deal
with "walked onstage"?! Jim, you slyboots, you!

>
> About that Clausewitz quote: I should thank you for bringing it to my
> atttention that Clausewitz's much-quoted maxim is translated badly by
> the use of the
> word "politics".
>      - Jim Landau
>

You're very welcome. I wish that I could take full credit, but I'm
fairly certain that I read it - i.e. that "politics" as the translation
of "politik" is a faux ami - somewhere or other.

-Wilson Gray