Precious

[Jonathan Lighter]

Very odd. One hopes it is unprecedented and will remain unparalleled, but one also knows better :

  2006  http://walkabout.com.au/tales/Travellerstales00043.shtml :
  If only Sydney City Council had been as precious with the landscape of the city and perhaps we wouldn't have the "toaster", the Merriton apartments and the distinct lack of green.

  Note too the funny-peculiar use of "and" for "then."

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Precious
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On the NPR news this morning, somebody was being interviewed about how products (e.g. cell phones, computers) are nowadays sold with the assumption (the hope) that they won't last long and will need replacing. The consumer acquiesces in the assumption; therefore, we aren't "as precious with" our gadgety possessions as we once were. He used "precious" in that odd way 2 or 3 times--referring not to an object of great price but rather to the owner who might consider an object precious (though hyperbolically, even at that, it seems to me).

It IS odd, isn't it?

--Charlie

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