"that," adv. = very; quite

[Jonathan Lighter]

That that means something this that doesn't.

JL

"Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
Subject: Re: "that," adv. = very; quite
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How about "He's all that [with an implied adjective], and a bag of
chips."

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 10:15 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "that," adv. = very; quite
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: "that," adv. = very; quite
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> OED lists this as "now dial. & Scot." except after a negative
> : e.g., "not (all) that crazy." Here's a contemporary U.S.
> ex. from the Style Channel show, "Clean House," first
> broadcast (or should that be "cablecast"?) in 2004 :
>
> "How old a woman are you ?"
> "I'm that young."
>
> The speaker was an African-American actress in L.A., speaking
> standard American English, about 40-45 years "young." Have
> never noticed this usage in U.S. before.
>
> JL
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection
> around http://mail.yahoo.com
>


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Better first dates. More second dates. Yahoo! Personals