"terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily

[Amy West]

This puts me in mind of the "terminally stupid" phrase that I hear
sometimes. There the use of "terminally" makes sense to me as the
implication is that the person/act is so stupid that it will cause
terminaton of the person's life.

---Amy West

>Date:    Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:51:34 -0400
>From:    Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: "terminally" = utterly; extraordinarily
>
>Not in OED but common in humorous and semi-humorous speech for a long time
>(30 years?).
>
>The first time I've encountered it used with a straight face:
>
>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.
>
>Professor Hanley, who holds an M. Litt. from Oxford University, teaches at
>the U.S. Air Force Academy.
>
>JL

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