gobsmack

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

It seems like the story is very much like "flabbergast". I find the active/transitive use of this verb odd, but a quick lexis/nexis search turned up some examples. Still, those examples are far outnumbered by the passive/adjectival use which sounds a lot more familiar to me.

Regardless, any use of "gobsmack" by an American strikes me as painfully Anglophilic.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Damien Hall
Sent: Wed 11/17/2004 3:39 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      gobsmack
 
Thanks to Jesse for the quotations.  But, as a Brit (a Londoner, FWIW), the
active use of *gobsmack* isn't in my dialect;  my first reaction to seeing the
active use was that it was indeed a misuse by an Anglophilic American, but I
suppose not entirely.  I still don't think it's very common, though.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania