odd-on favorite

[George Thompson]

This is what we get when we raise a generation who are not horse-players.

GAT, who never bets at less that 4-1

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Victor <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
Date: Friday, March 6, 2009 1:18 pm
Subject: odd-on favorite
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> This is just an observation. I am not offering any dramatic conclusions.
>
> At first, I thought it was a typo.
>
> http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_03/017176.php
>     If Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) runs for governor in California next
> year, she's the _odd-on favorite_ to win the Democratic nomination.
>
> But I am not convinced that it is.
>
> "odd-on favorite"     1330 ghits (actual 188 hits)
> "odd-on favourite"     221 ghits (65)
> "odd-on leader"             2 ghits (2)
> "odd-on loser"               5 ghits (5)
> "odds-on favorite"     114K ghits (690)
> "odds-on favourite"   50.4K ghits (549)
> "odds-on leader"         99 ghits (26)
> "odds-on loser"         182 ghits (46)
>
> There is an extra complication that some of the "odd-on" hits also
> include "odd's-on", which is not a problem with the "odds-on" count.
> Then, "odd's-on" gets its own share of hits.
>
> "odd's-on favorite"      114K ghits (54)
> "odd's-on favourite"   50.9K ghits (32)
>
> What I find interesting that there is virtual parity in raw hits for
> odd's vs odds, but that this does not show up when the actual hits are
> counted. And "odd's-on leader" only gets 1 hit. So does "odd's on loser".
>
>     VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org