killed to death

[Jonathan Lighter]

Actually, a blast from the past. See OED _kill_, 2c, with exx. from 1362 and ca1400.

  Plus:

  1858 _The British Millennial Harbinger_ XI (3rd Ser.) (Nov. 1) 540: Bro. Wallis gets scratched by a stray shot; and he so riddles his dummies, that our trans-channel friends [in Ireland] might pronounce them "kilt to death."

  Google Books has two or three more of these, all seemingly Irish.

  I even found a current "kiled [sic] to death" on the Web.

  JL

Barnhart <barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Barnhart
Subject: Re: killed to death
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Thanks, Mark.

I guess this is not a wavelet of the future.

Regards,
David B.

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