"pebbledash" -- WOTY?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 12:38 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>
>> I never said it was rare, or that I didn't know what it meant (at
>> least after I consulted the OED!) -- in fact, I am suggesting (not
>> seriously, of course) that it will become even more common and widely
>> known with Sarah Boyle.
>
> Well, if we're looking for Briticisms coming to wider notice thanks to
> Sarah Boyle, how about "gobsmacked' (somewhat known in the US) and
> "wellie/welly" (virtually unknown in the relevant sense) ...

My latest Word Routes column covers "gobsmacked", "wellie", and other
Boyleisms...

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1825/


--Ben Zimmer

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