possible antedate of indiscriminative "whatever"?
Charles Doyle
cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Sun Jul 23 14:41:23 UTC 2006
The semantics of interjections can be so slippery!
I remember, in the 4th or 5th grade, encountering the word "pshaw" in a spelling textbook (are those still called "spellers"? Do they still EXIST?). Half a century later, I still have never heard anyone SAY "pshaw"; I don't know how it would sound (in what dialect) or precisely what it would mean . . . .
--Charlie
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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