Evidence for DECIMATE ('one in ten')

[Jonathan Lighter]

That cracks me up.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: Evidence for DECIMATE ('one in ten')
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Humpty Dumpty was not off his rocker; he was off the wall.

--Charlie
____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 20:49:19 -0800
>From: Jonathan Lighter

> Should we care how Joe and Jolina Prig use their own vocabularies? That's their business. If they get too wild they, like Humpty Dumpty*, should be regarded as off their rockers.
. . . . . . . . .
>
> * [" 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less....Impenetrability! That's what I say!' " These are the words of a solipsistic madman, though unfortunately not often recognized for what they are.]
>
> JL

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Never miss a thing.   Make Yahoo your homepage.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org