Fwd: ahold

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

re-send; i'm having problems with my mail accounts.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
> Date: October 26, 2008 8:05:23 AM PDT
> To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: ahold
>
>
> On Oct 26, 2008, at 3:23 AM, Randy Alexander wrote:
>
>> OED1 lists "ahold" as an obsolete term, but "grab ahold", etc, is
>> pretty
>> common.
>
> see discussion here on ADS-L in June 2005, in the thread "ahold".
> OED2 treats it as a variant spelling of "a hold" or "a-hold" with
> the meaning 'hold'.  "get/grab/etc. ahold of" is very common in U.S.
> and Canadian English, but marked as conversational or colloquial or
> even non-standard by various authorities.
>
>> Can anyone give me a POS for this?  (A la CGEL)
>
> AHD4 lists it as a noun (without etymology or usage label).  that
> sounds right to me.
>
> arnold
>

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