empretzeled

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:47 PM -0400 5/21/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>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

and their French cousin (or cousine?), "emmerd

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