"change out a window", "paint out a shelf"

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Fri Jul 21 12:27:57 UTC 2006


Now that the subject has risen in my consciousness, I've begun to notice (more-or-less) analogous constructions that sound a bit unidiomatic, or at least redundant, to me.  Yesterday I heard a few random snippets of some cooking shows that my wife was watching on the "Food Channel"--a total of 10 minutes, perhaps.

The "Barefoot Contessa" (Ina Somebody?) wanted us to "add in the oil" to a mustard-garlic-eggyoke mixture.  Sandra Lee instructed, "Stir this [the ingredients in a bowl] together," and (a few minutes later), "Combine those [ingredients] together."  Rachael Ray perkily said to "add in a quarter cup of" something with a foreign name.

--Charlie

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



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