empretzeled

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
> On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 4:33 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>
>> WTF does it mean: "empretzeled"? I'm not familiar with the relevant
>> dialect of English.
>
> Convoluted, contorted, tangled, twisted... like a pretzel.

(And formed on the model of other "en/em-X-ed" passive participles, like
"entangled", "enmeshed", "ensnarled", "embroiled", "embrangled", etc.)


--Ben Zimmer

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