waxing_____________?

[M Covarrubias]

On Apr 19, 2009, at 4:35 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:


> Alison Murie wrote:
>>
>> 'But his overall tone is a gentle one, as he tries to demystify his
>> diet by devoting a chapter to "A Day in the Life of a Vegan," in
>> which
>> he characterizes himself as "cooking-challenged," while waxing about
>> the nutty flavor of organic avocadoes.'
>> --from an article in  Salon on Jeffrey Masson.
>>
>> Subtle effort to engage the reader by making him(her) supply the
>> "eloquent" or "poetic" or whatever??
>> AM
>>
> -
>
> Seems to me this "wax" has been mentioned before but I can't find it
> in
> the archives.
>
> The post-literati apparently have heard (I was about to say
> "read" ... I
> suppose that's possible too) things like "wax eloquent", which is
> assumed to mean "talk eloquent", thus "wax" must mean "talk". Or
> something like that.
>
> One can Google <<"waxing on about">> and see hundreds and hundreds of
> examples with "wax" apparently meaning "talk"/"babble"/"rant"/etc.
>
> One can switch to G. Books and see dozens of published examples of
> this
> collocation, mostly in recent years (since the books have stopped
> being
> edited, I suppose, or since the editors have come to be chosen from
> the
> post-literati?).
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>


neal whitman has written about this on his blog

http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2006/06/21/waxing-eloquently/
http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/waxing-on/

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