"Rate": Britspeak only?

[Wilson Gray]

Charlie, your example sentences work for me. And there's "to low-rate" in BE
(and in other dialets?), with the meaning "to insult."

-Wilson

On 5/4/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      "Rate": Britspeak only?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Although Americans use (or used to use) "rate" is a similar
> sense:  "The food at this place just doesn't rate."  "You
> got invited? You must really rate!"
>
> Perhaps also in that "rate/reckon/value" category is "rank,"
> as in the sports-page usage: a "ranked" team, meaning
> a 'highly-ranked' team.
>
> --Charlie
>
> __________________________________
>
>
> >Reminds me of the British usage of "rate" to mean 'to value
> highly',
> >which invariably puzzles Americans (as when Simon Cowell
> uses it on
> >"American Idol"). OED cites:
> >
> >------
> >1973 Times 10 Feb. 7/7 You can never be sure of Brazil, of
> course, but
> >I don't rate the South Americans next time. I believe 1974
> will be
> >dominated by the Europeans.
> >1973 New Society 12 Apr. 64/2 He would like to play cricket
> for
> >Surrey, but he doesn't rate his chances.
> >1976 E. DUNPHY Only a Game? iv. 104 He's a good honest pro,
> but
> >somehow Benny doesn't rate him.
> >1977 World of Cricket Monthly June 85/1, I must say we
> rated our
> >chances going up to Headingley.
> >------
> >
> >With both "rate" and "reckon", a neutral term of valuation
> gets
> >reanalyzed in colloquial usage as a positive one. Perhaps
> the semantic
> >shift is modeled on the double sense of the verb "value".
> >
> >
> >--Ben Zimmer
>
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