accusative cursing

[Dennis R. Preston]

"Cursed (cussed) at" sounds odd to me. The completely idiomatic form
of this in my vernacular (with a human object) is "cuss out."

I pissed off old Hatfield and he cussed me out something awful.

"Cussed at me" would be unusual for me here.

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: accusative cursing
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On 4/8/07, Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at purdue.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  A recent AP story reports that a Northwest airlines flight was
>>canceled because
>>  of a pilot's temper tantrum. In the story we read: "Authorities
>>were told that
>>  the pilot cursed one passenger who confronted him, Gregor said."
>>
>>  Inanimate objects are cursed all the time, but with a human object I would
>>  expect to find "cursed at" or some other syntactical indication of
>>a dative form.
>>
>>  This transitive use of 'cursed' sounds like a case of nefarious
>>magic to me. How
>>  common is this form?
>
>"Curse" = 'swear at' is fairly common. Here are some more news
>articles in which people are "cursed" with obscene epithets rather
>than evil spells:
>
>---
>http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/61236.html
>Kansas City Star, Apr. 6, 2007
>Family members of the victim shouted and cursed the judge.
>---
>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070405.wsptleafs5/TPStory/Sports/columnists
>Globe and Mail, Apr. 5, 2007
>The Islanders also claimed Lundqvist and teammate Sean Avery cursed
>the girls during other breaks in play and that one unknown Ranger may
>have spat on a girl.
>---
>http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070404/COL06/704040415
>Detroit Free Press, Apr. 4, 2007
>Simon extended his hand. Declining to shake it, Taubman cursed the man.
>---
>http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1175678102225320.xml&coll=3
>Mobile Press-Register, Apr. 4, 2007
>Binzer cursed the officer, and told him that no policeman could arrest him.
>---
>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/04/01/leahy_finds_chance_to_fight_executive_privilege_strategy/
>Boston Globe, Apr. 1, 2007
>In 2004, when Vice President Dick Cheney ran into Leahy on the Senate
>floor, Cheney cursed the senator with an epithet.
>---
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
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