coincidentally = ironically = also

[James A. Landau]

On Friday 02/02/07at, when else, 12:07 AM Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:

"For anybody who missed The Daily Show last night, I recommend watching
the early-evening rebroadcast tonight--specifically "our White House
correspondent" John Oliver's hilarious satire of Bush and the Bushistas'
etc. etc."

"Bushista" is an interesting expression.  It comes of course from Hispanoamerica, where it is used in "Zapatista" and "Sandinista" and others that I can't think of at the moment to mean "armed follower of", with, I am fairly certain. the connotation of "left-wing guerilla"  (e.g. those oppossed to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua were not the "contradistas" or "Somozistas" but simply the "contras".)
Therefore you connote that George W. Bush is the leader of a left-wing guerilla movement!
_________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 13:38:56 -0500
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject: Re: coincidentally = ironically = also
>
>This follows the well-known rule that a word sounds fancier with extra
syllables in front. Cf. "epicenter" = 'center', "penultimate" =
'ultimate', "quintessential" = 'essential', "juxtaposition" =
'position', etc.

I might object that your antepenultimate example is incorrect, and suggest that if you don't know the difference between "penultimate" and "ultimate" that you, hmmm, do not try to write metrical poetry.

     There was a young man from Japan
     Whose limericks never quite scanned
        When asked for the why
        He said "It's cause I
     Try to cram as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can"

     - Jim Landau

"White souls have no people" - Baron Munchausen

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