(quasi-)neologisms

[Patti J. Kurtz]

I'm not sure if self reporting is helpful, but my college friends and I
said things like this in college in the late 1970's-- our favorite was
"walk much?" if someone tripped.  This SW PA circa 1976.  Not sure where
it came from though.

Patti Kurtz

jester at PANIX.COM wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>Subject:      Re: (quasi-)neologisms
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 11:10:27AM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>
>>>From a recent novel featuring life among 20-somethings in New York.
>>OK, one of these is evidently not new, but represents an unfamiliar
>>construction to me:
>>
>>"obsessive much?" as a query, evidently a rhetorical question, to
>>which the anticipated (non-vocalized) answer is "Yes, X is/are indeed
>>very obsessive (about whatever it is)".  Michael Adams can perhaps
>>tell us whether this is a Buffyism.  A quick tour of google hits
>>(703, some but not most of which are false positives involving
>>sentence breaks between the "obsessive" and the "much") doesn't
>>indicate this, but it *sounds* like a Buffyism.  Which doesn't of
>>course mean that it was first launched on the show, of course.
>>
>>
>
>It was popularized on Buffy, though not first found there, as
>the OED entry makes clear:
>
> h. colloq. (orig. U.S., freq. ironic). With a preceding
>adjective, infinitive verb, or noun phrase, forming an
>elliptical comment or question.
>  The use was popularized by the film _Buffy, the Vampire
>Slayer_ and the television series derived from it.
>
>  1988 D. WATERS Heathers (film script) 15 God Veronica, drool
>much? His name's Jason Dean. 1988 D. WATERS Heathers (film
>script) 86 Heather Duke. It was J.D.'s idea! He made out the
>signature sheet and everything. Now will you sign
>it. Veronica. (queasy) No. Heather Duke. Jealous much? 1992
>J. WHEDON Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film script) 8 A stranger,
>walking the other way, bumps into Buffy, doesn't
>stop... Buffy. Excuse much! Not rude or anything. 1992
>J. WHEDON Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film script) 25 Pike and
>Benny have entered the diner, quite drunk... Kimberly (to the
>other girls) Smell of booze much. 1998 M. BURGESS & R. GREEN
>Isabella in Sopranos (television shooting script) 1st Ser. 1
>42 Anthony Jr. Probably I can't go to that dance now
>either. Meadow. God, self-involved much? 2001 Cosmopolitan
>Dec. 178 You've seen them: the kinds of couples who finish
>each other's sentences... Jealous much? Damn right.
>
>Jesse Sheidlower
>OED
>
>

--

Dr. Patti J. Kurtz

Assistant Professor, English

Director of the Writing Center

Minot State University

Minot, ND 58707



Foster: What about our evidence? They've got to take notice of that.



Straker: Evidence. What's it going to look like when Henderson claims
that we manufactured it, just to get a space clearance program?



Foster: But we are RIGHT!



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