"all the faster'

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED seems not to include this common spoken construction - no surprise, since I was told in junior high English that it was at least as revolting as "irregardless" and must never be spoken or written on pain of lofty disdain.

I doubt that this ex. is particularly early, but it's a start:

1935 Doyle Laird & Wallace Smith _Bordertown_ (film) : Is this all the faster this Model T will go?

In other words, "as fast as."

How would one describe or account for the underlying grammar here ?  Is there a syntactician in the house ?  (Goak.)

JL


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