spade cat (was Re: "like" and "as if")

[Jonathan Lighter]

Have heard "spaded" as well, very often.

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: spade cat (was Re: "like" and "as if")
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> >"Spade" is the spelling I see most frequently on those "Free Cat" notices
>>on the vet's bulletin board.
>>
>>JL
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>I've frequently heard "spaded" cat or dog, esp. up here in northern NY.
>Probably appears on notices, too, but I haven't been reading them.
>AM
>
Well, at least that provides a participle (although I guess some
radical mishearing must be involved). I find "recently spade cat"
very odd, although it does preserve the phonology, given the
difficulty of taking "spade" to be a participle.

L


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