waxing_____________?

[Wilson Gray]

Well, _wax_ does mean "grow" or "become, as in "wax wroth."

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 7:06 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: waxing_____________?
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>
> On Apr 19, 2009, at 6:02 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
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>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: waxing_____________?
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>>
>> At 4:11 PM -0400 4/19/09, 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
>>>
>> Maybe edited down from "waxing on about", which might have struck
>> someone as odd because of the two prepositions in a row? Â As it is,
>> it conjures up the image of waxed organic avocados, which doesn't
>> seem right. Â (I don't think organic avocados, or even inorganic Hass
>> ones, should really have to put up with that -es plural either--seems
>> more appropriate for those awful tasteless oversized "avocadoes" from
>> Florida.)
>>
>> L
>
>> I should admit that I haven't looked this up,but I've always
>> asssumed that waxing in this sort of constructiion meant something
>> like "becoming" as in the waxing moon becoming a full moon.
> I had the same feeling about that intrusive /e/ in avocados, but
> didn't look that up either. California (Calavo) avocados hardly need
> waxing, being sort of naturally waxed like cucumbers. Â The Florida
> ones seem to merit the "alligator pear" name. ( Sometimes they are
> really good.)
> When we do finally get our truckloads of books rationally dispersed
> around the house we've been living in since Sept, I'll get back in the
> habit of using the dictionaries.
> AM
>
>
>>
>
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