expressionate, adj.
Mark Mandel
thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jan 26 15:37:24 UTC 2008
Ah ha. Got it. Only in paragraph 3, with the definition, did I realize the
questioned item was /Eks'prES at n@t/, an adjective (by the suffix), not /Eks'
prES at neyt/, a verb.
m a m
On Jan 25, 2008 10:23 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> A friend asked me yesterday whether "expressionate" was a word. I should
> have checked Google before I hemmed and hawed and said, "If it sounds right
> to you, and people understand you when you say it, it's a word!"
>
> Boy, that was a close one! But I now I find over 7,000 Raw Googlits back
> to 1997.
>
> My friend said she's "always" used it, but began to worry when she
> couldn't find it in a dictionary. It means "chracterized by strong, usu.
> facial, expression; strongly expressive."
>
> She said "expressive" wasn't the same thing. "Expressionate" refers
> prinicpally (though not exclusively) to facial expressions.
>
>
> JL
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list