wee-weed up

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 1:17 PM, Benjamin
Zimmer<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> From CNN's Ed Henry...
>
> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26328.html
> "...I think based on my reporting abilities, I will suggest that he's
> suggesting that people are a little agitated, if you will, a little
> over-excited right now."
>
> So they're riled up to the point of incontinence?

And now Robert Gibbs clarifies (sort of):

---
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Briefing-by-White-House-Press-Secretary-Robert-Gibbs-8/21/09/
Let's do this in a way that is family friendly. I think wee-weed up is
when people just get all nervous for no particular reason, when they
-- look, I think the way the President used it was -- and I've talked
to a few of you guys about this -- in August of 2007, right, the rap
on the President and the campaign was they can't -- first of all,
they're doing poorly in Iowa; they can't possibly win the nomination,
let alone the presidency, right, so I'll leave those predications
aside. August of 2008, everybody was nervous about whether the entire
presidential campaign was slipping out from underneath the hands of
the President, who they previously didn't think would actually be the
nominee.
So this is just -- this is sort of an August pundit pattern between
people getting overly nervous for something that still has a long way
to go. Bed-wetting is -- would be probably the more consumer-friendly
term.
---

--Ben Zimmer

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