Fail as an adjective

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jul 10, 2009, at 7:49 AM, Karl Hagen wrote:

>
> It turns out that "failest" has 16,400 g-hits and an entry in the
> Urban
> Dictionary:
>
> "the art of when someone does something so epically [sic] FAIL that
> they just
> fail at life."

i don't think "epically" is an error here.  "epic fail" (with the noun
"fail") is very frequent, to the point of being essentially a fixed
expression.  if you use "fail" as an adjective, then the modifier
"epic" shifts to its adverb form.

> The supplied example:
>
> Carol: "Wow your attempt to push a chair onto the carpet was the
> failest thing
> i've ever seen"
>
> Note "so especially" above. Not one, but two degree modifiers.

see above.  i think "so" modifies "epically" here.

arnold

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