go missing

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jun 7, 2009, at 7:07 AM, i wrote:

> it's astonishing how much passion this idiom raises in americans.
> we've seen Robert Hartwell Fiske's contempt for it.  it was Grammar
> Girl's Pet Peeve of 2008 ...

and on Language Log:

ML, 6/30/04: To pass into a certain condition, chiefly implying
deterioration:
  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001142.html

ML, 10/25/08: Going rogue:
  http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=764

the first of these discusses a Safire column in which he responds to a
reader's claim that "goes missing" is ungrammatical.  Safire defends
the idiom, notes that it is "British English", and provides an 1877
cite.

arnold

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