"drug" = "dragged"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 5/23/07, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> I don't see this one too often in print. Perhaps editors, of which
> I'm not too sure the site I got this from has one, change it to
> "dragged" wherever it's written. I don't normally hear it up in the
> frozen north, though I'm aware of it, and of its being current in
> "nonstandard" English for a long time.
>
> http://science.howstuffworks.com/bermuda-triangle1.htm
>
> "The most bizarre theory is that a giant octopus entwined the ship
> with it tentacles and drug it to the bottom of the ocean."

President Bush used "drug (out)" in today's press conference:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070524.html
"This investigation is taking a long time, kind of being drug out, I
suspect for political question -- for political reasons."

This was reported on TPMmuckraker with a snide "sic" attached to "drug":

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003291.php

Commenters on the site pile on the ridicule, e.g.:

"Is being 'drug out' another instance of classic put-on Texas rancher
high school dropout English language mangling, or a true faux-pas that
deserves literal interpretation?"


--Ben Zimmer

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