"own it for a limited time"

[Baker, John]

        Google comes to the rescue:  Ben may have misheard this one, but
it is found in a few places on the Web, mostly but not entirely for
DVDs.

        DVD:  "House on Haunted Hill will not be available in stores
until later this year. But you can own it for a limited time only
exclusively through Legend Films."  http://www.legendfilms.net/hohh.html


        DVD:  "Carnival of Souls IN COLOR will not be available in
stores until next year.  But you can own it for a limited time only
exclusively through Off Color Films."
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=60289&item=382940
9440

        Custom wheel:  "The Double G 210 is a substitute for the
discontinued giovanna mito rim. It has a sport look as well as a lot of
flash. This wheel was a huge success as the giovanna mito, now you can
own it for a limited time as the double g 210."
http://www.thewheelconnection.com/php/showwheel.php?name=210&brand=DBL-G
&brandsearch=1


        More intuitive uses are also found.  For example:

        "So, in reality, I don't own a copy of Me, I'm using Compaq's
copy until my computer dies?  Originally, I was under the impression
that all the software was included in the purchase price I paid for the
computer to begin with. . . . [I]t just seems that if you own something
you should own it, and be able to do what you want to with it - not own
it for a limited time or just own a non-existant thing that truly
vanishes when part of it becomes unusable."
http://hardware.mcse.ms/message228015.html


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 8:46 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "own it for a limited time"

On 2/26/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> Disney only releases its classic movies on DVD for brief periods in
> order to boost demand, with _The Lady and the Tramp_ the latest to get

> this treatment. A commercial currently running for the DVD exhorts,
> "Own it for a limited time!"
>
> Has the verb "own" shifted while I wasn't looking, from 'possess' to
'acquire'?

Ah, never mind. I just caught the commercial again, and it turns out I
misheard it the first time. The line is "only for a limited time," not
"own it for a limited time." Sorry about that!


--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org