"terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily

[Victor]

Although the ambiguity may be present in this particular case, there is
no denial that "terminally" in the sense of "utterly" is quite common. I
seem to recall a line from A Fish Called Wanda, where one character asks
the other, "So [blah blah blah] or are you terminally stupid?" But even
without that particular reference, there are 49000+G raw ghits on
"terminally stupid" with no apparent geographic limitations. Here are a
couple of titles of posts from the first page of Google hits.

 >>You just can't help the terminally stupid
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2009/06/you_just_cant_help_the_terminally_stupid.html

 >>Taking Advantage of the Terminally Stupid

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2004/10/04/taking-advantage-of-the-terminally-stupid.aspx

There also appears to be 49 entries for Terminally Stupid in the Urban
Dictionary.

    VS-)

Damien Hall wrote:
> JL quoted Brian Hanley this:
>
> '2008  Brian Hanley  _Planning for Conflict in the Twenty-First Century_
> (Greenwood) 126: Another illustration of the terminally insidious impact on
> French society of the Great War.'
>
> and said it was a straight-faced use of _terminally_ to mean 'utterly',
> 'extraordinarily'. But do we know that for sure? The context doesn't make
> it clear, to me at least, since arguably the Great War _did_ have a
> terminal impact on many aspects of French (high) society. I'm no French
> historian, but I believe it's true that the Great War made France take a
> major step away from being ruled by its aristocracy (even though it had
> been a republic since 1875).
>
> If we accept this, it is possible that this _terminally_ could be taken in
> its literal meaning. We then have to imagine French society being eaten
> away from the inside, or something, in order for _insidious_ to have the
> desired effect; but that's not much of a leap to make. Is it?
>
> Damien
>
> --
> Damien Hall
>

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