"or so"

[Baker, John]

        I have both meanings ("approximately" and "approximately but at least") in my idiolect.  The inherent ambiguity does not always lend itself to precision of meaning, but I was thereby able to withstand the feather's blow.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 4:56 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "or so"

In my Standard Idiolect of English, the phrase "or so" means "approximately but at least." So you could have knocked me down with a dodo feather when I read the following:

2008 Roberta Frank, "Afterword," in Burton Raffel, trans. _Beowulf_ (N.Y.: Signet) 141:
The vivid rendering of _Beowulf_ by Burton Raffel [published in 1963] has held up well over the past half century or so."

I got news for you, Roberta Frank, Marie Borroff Professor of English at Yale University! 1963 is not fifty years ago "or so." It's forty-five years ago and, by God, it's going to stay that way!

Does anybody here feel any different?

JL


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