silly adverts

[Alison Murie]

On Oct 27, 2008, at 10:42 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: silly adverts
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>
> At 10:29 AM -0400 10/27/08, Alison Murie wrote:
>> When "pre-owned" caught my attention some years ago, I thought it
>> sounded pretty silly, & was just a sort of trial balloon,but ADS
>> people had known of it for quite a while then.  Now I see "Certified
>> Pre-owned" installed in pretty permanent-looking letters on a car
>> agency in our town.This strikes me as beyond silly.
>> AM
>>
> Yeah, "pre-owned" cars sell for a few thousand more than used cars,
> and of course draw a (financially and psychologically) different
> clientele.  BMW has been pushing "certified pre-owned" in their
> commercials for a while; I assume such a car is certified even though
> pre-owned/used, rather than that BMW is certifying it's not new...
>
> LH
Yes, of course. I agree...but it would be less silly-sounding if the
word order suggested that.
"Pre-" is one of those odd contradictory expressions, anyway:  pre-
owned *could* mean that it hadn't yet been owned!
AM

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