Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)

[Dennis R. Preston]

I like "modified to the eights" (by analogy with "dressed to the
nines"), but, alas, it is only a typo.

dInIs

>Dennis R. Preston wrote
>
>>>>
>
>Of course it is cock-eyed, although French-eyed would be a better
>label. The French term (hence the possibility of modifiers to the
>eight) indicates the "general" scope of the office-holder's interest,
>not a military-like rank at all.
>
><<<
>
>Of course, dInIs meant to type "to the right". ... Or is "modifiers to the
>eight" something new to me, akin to "dressed to the nines"?
>
>                 ---------------------
>
>And Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>>>
>
>   The subtitle of the 1978 miniseries _Holocaust_ was  "The Story of the
>Family Weiss"
>[http://library.maricopa.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=cgc2&index=BIB&term=1
>94741#focus].  I don't know whether this construction was simply an
>imitation of Yiddish and German syntax, or whether it was once also common
>in English.
>
><<<
>
>"The Swiss Family Robinson"
>"The Brothers Karamazov"
>
>
>m a m
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu

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