"smart" = "considerable (in number, amount, extent, etc.)"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Slater, USAFR, used to be an English professor and, back from Asia where he was a PAO, resumed his current job with National Public Radio in Ohio.

So he's literate.  Actually, his short memoir is gracefully written (and available on-line). Color photos, too.  "Smart" shouldn't be a misprint.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "smart" = "considerable (in number, amount, extent, etc.)"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slater's usage seems strange to me, too, Jon. And I've actually known
people who said "right smart." If I'd come across this usage of "smart"
in situ, I would have assumed that it was some sort of typo, perhaps
for "small." But "small" doesn't clarify things much, either.

-Wilson

On Jan 26, 2005, at 1:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "smart" = "considerable (in number, amount, extent,
> etc.)"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> OED thinks so too, Bill. But Slater's usage seems odd tp me, esp. in a
> standard English context.
>
> Still recovering from the shame,
>
> JL
>
> "Mullins, Bill" wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
> Subject: Re: "smart" = "considerable (in number, amount, extent, etc.)"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> It seems related to "right smart", which I've seen used to mean "very"
> or "considerable"
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society
>> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:29 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: "smart" = "considerable (in number, amount, extent, etc.)"
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: "smart" = "considerable (in number, amount,
>> extent, etc.)"
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----------------
>>
>> OED has this from 1778-1882, marked "Chiefly dial. and U.S."
>> Here is an ex. from more than a century later. It caught my
>> eye because at first I thought it was only a bad metaphor.
>>
>> "I get used to the dust...fine dust like talcum powder....It
>> piles up wherever it finds a niche...The dust is smart enough
>> to ground an aircraft." --Major Richard C. Slater, "Notes
>> from a Journal: Afghanistan...," War, Literature, & the Arts
>> (16 [2004]: 151).
>>
>> Is anyone familiar with this usage?
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
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