"underlooked"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:19 AM -0500 3/20/06, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>Larry,
>
>In hoops, to have a good opportunity to score is to have a "good
>look." Announcers regularly say stuff like "X didn't get a lot of
>good loooks tonight." If X's teammates didn't get the ball to her
>enough (i.e., provide her with enough "touches"), then she wouldn't
>be getting many goood looks. Perhaps this usage influenced this funny
>"underlooked."
>
>dInIs

I think you're trying too hard--most of the 14,000 web hits are for
underlooked movies, MP3 releases, and so on, rather than basketball
players.  I feel for you, dInIs; you're probably trying to come to
terms with the Spartans' early exit after they underlooked George
Mason...

Larry

>
>>I'm not sure whether it's an eggcorn, a blend, or both.  One of the
>>commentators on the NCAA women's basketball tournament was commenting
>>on one of the star players for Rutgers who doesn't have that much
>>support from her teammates (it's basically a two-(wo)man team) and
>>thus doesn't get as much attention for player of the year
>>consideration as she might otherwise.  Her comment:
>>
>>"It's a shame that Cappie Pondexter gets underlooked."
>>
>>--turns out there are 14,100 raw hits.  Blend of "overlooked" and
>>"underXed" (under-recognized, under-appreciated, etc.)?  Or just
>>reanalysis via a prefix that seems to fit the semantics better than
>>"over-" does?
>>
>>Larry
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>15-C Morrill Hall
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824-1036
>Phone: (517) 353-4736
>Fax: (517) 353-3755
>preston at msu.edu
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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