Pre-emptively?

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

   You guys may be barking up the wrong tree hunting for an adverb to modify customary. The search should probably be for a word or phrase to substitute for customary but with the strengthening effect that is being sought.  E.g., "It is standard procedure,"  "It is a routine matter (to do such and such)," "It is de rigueur."  I worte an article a while back pointing out that adverbs/adverbial phrases can only go so far in increasing the degree of an adjective (e.g., "good"), whereupon one must proceed to a new word (e.g., great, fabulous, fantastic) or a phrase, (e.g., for a baseball player, "a seecond Ty Cobb").  I'm away from my office and therefore don't have access to the article or its reference.
 
Gerald Cohen

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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Wed 12/20/2006 9:42 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Pre-emptively?



Best: "mad customary."

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: Pre-emptively?
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Notwithstanding all the excellent suggestions here, I still don't see what's wrong with plain, old-fashioned "totally customary"--or, even better, "way customary."

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:46:58 -0500
>From: "Joel S. Berson"
>Subject: Pre-emptively?
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>I am looking for an adverb that I can use (for example) to precede "customary" to give the meaning "so customary that no one would ever think of anything else". Pre-emptively? presumptively? Help!
>
>Thanks,
>Joel

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