awfully/awful

[Wilson Gray]

Oddly enough, G, this is unknown in BE, at least in that of my era. We
say / said(?) "a (whole) lot." "Awfully much" sounds like something
that the cute, little, white English girl in a book would say; "an
awful lot" sounds like working-class white speech, not exactly
trend-setting dialects amongst the colored, needless to say.

-(No)Money
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: awfully/awful
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This looks like a blend: "awfully much" + "an awful lot."
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> Original message fromAlison Murie, Sun 3/8/2009 11:39 AM:
>
> "That smells an awfully lot like godless socialism to
> me." (D.M.Green," Smart is the New Stupid") I suppose thinking of
> "lot" as an adjective is what brought on this bit of infelicity.
> AM
>
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