"Bill & Ted's" Quotations

[Mullins, Bill]

A common military exhortation is "OUT-standing!" (with a pause between
syllables, almost as if it were two words), often used when things
aren't actually outstanding.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 7:33 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Bill & Ted's" Quotations
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Bill & Ted's" Quotations
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> B & T use "triumphant" as well. This is unique in my experience.
>
> JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: "Bill & Ted's" Quotations
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 22:30:16 -0700, Dave Wilton wrote:
>
> [I wrote:]
> >> Just had a chance to refamiliarize myself with _B&T_.
> Interjectional
> >> "excellent" is used near the beginning of the film,
> uttered in unison
> >> by Bill and Ted and accompanied by an air-guitar flourish:
> >
> >Yes, but the simple exclamation "excellent!" is neither original to,
> >nor especially emblematic of the film. "Excellent!" was in my
> >vocabulary during high school in the late 70s.
>
> True, it wasn't original to the movie, but to many fans it
> was indeed emblematic. See, e.g.:
>
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=excellent-air-guitar
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
>
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