Fail as an adjective

[Karl Hagen]

I realized that after I sent the message. I originally read it as a spelling
error for "especially"

Arnold Zwicky wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Fail as an adjective
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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