"exact(ual)ly"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jan 23, 2005, at 2:15 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "exact(ual)ly"
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>
>> ~~~~~~~~
>>> an exchange with a friend on the text of Alice...  anyone have any
>>> light to shed on "exactually"?
>>>
> ************
>         Just an obvious comment; In "exactly"and  "actually" we see
> partial phonetic overlap ("act" and "-ly" in both). So "actually" was
> partially grafted onto "exactly", producing "exactually."
>
>          In a similar vein (if I remember right), The Zippidy doo-dah
> song contains the line "Everything is satisfactual." Here too we see
> partial phonetic overlap ("ac" in "fac(t)" and "actual." So "actual"
> was grafted onto "satisfac-", perhaps merely as poetic licence, with
> the loss of the -"tory" ("satisfactory").
>         Again, this is valid only if my memory is correct.
>
>         Gerald Cohen
>

"It's the truth!
  It's akchul!
  Ev'rything is sa-tis-fak-chul!"

Your memory is close enough for government work, Gerald. I can't vouch
for the accuracy of my pseudo-phonetic spelling, but that's certainly
what it sounded like to me.

-Wilson Gray