I do not think that word means what you think it means (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Baker, John]

Actually, Arnold, I believe that you yourself have written on how distinctive a surprisingly short collocation of words can be.  I would be prepared to bet a modest amount that those twelve words were not used in print in haec verba before The Princess Bride.
 
 
John Baker
 

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold Zwicky
Sent: Wed 4/8/2009 8:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: I do not think that word means what you think it means (UNCLASSIFIED)



On Apr 8, 2009, at 4:43 PM, John Baker followed up on the query as to
whether "The Princess Bride" is the source of this quote.

of course the movie wasn't the *source* of the quote.  it's a
perfectly ordinary sentence of english.

what the movie did was make it into catchphrase.

arnold

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