New movie

[William Salmon]

Is 'breaking bad' or 'breaking nasty' sorta like 'jumping ugly'?


> Wilson, HDAS has "break bad" from 1972 with the definition, "[of
> persons] to become aggressive or angry." (After fifteen years, this
> def. now seems a bit bland to me. Maybe it needs an adverb like
> "extremely" and the addition of "unruly, disorderly, etc.")  Correct
> me if I'm wrong.
>
>  To "break" can also mean "(of circumstances) to go or become," thus
> "break bad" can also mean "to go wrong, become difficult, dangerous,
> etc."  But that would be less usual, I think.
>
>  "Break nasty" seems to partake of both nuances. You'll be amazed
> when I say I 've never encountered it before.
>
>  JL
>
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: New movie
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jon, have you noticed the ads for the new movie titled, "Breaking
> Bad"? My intuition is that the desire for alliteration dissuaded the
> producers from the use of the cooler and the goner, "Breaking Nasty."
> ;-)
>
> -Wilson
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Never miss a thing.   Make Yahoo your homepage.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



~Will Salmon

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