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[Michael Quinion]

Quoting Arnold M. Zwicky:

> She made herself coffee, taking a mouthful before realizing she
> hadn't boiled the kettle.

To me here in Britain this is a standard formation - in this house we
boil the kettle for tea or coffee several times a day. OK, so it's
illogical, since one actually boils the water in the kettle, rather
than the kettle itself, but we Brits know what we mean ...

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <wordseditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>