"hither to that point" (J. Travolta)

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:59 AM -0800 2/25/08, Brenda Lester wrote:
>I caught it but didn't understand it.  Most actors are like sports
>people--incomprehensible without a script.
>
>   bl

Well, to be charitable, maybe he was ad-libbing at the time, and
creating an online blend of "hitherto" and "up to (pronounced "up
tuh") that point".

LH

>
>
>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: "hither to that point" (J. Travolta)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Anyone else watching the Oscars? If so, anyone else just hear John
>Travolta (in a segment on how academy members like him vote for their
>choices) say something to the effect of
>
>"hither to that point"
>
>with reduction to schwa on "to" ("hither tuh that point"), so it was
>clearly not "hitherto that point"? The point was a point in time,
>and the meaning was quite obviously "up to that point/moment". I've
>never heard this and don't see any gloss in the OED or AHD that
>really fit this use of "hither", although some of the archaic senses
>in the OED approximate it.
>
>LH
>
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