empretzeled

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/22/2009 08:49 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 4:05 PM -0400 5/22/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>At 5/21/2009 05:07 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>At 4:47 PM -0400 5/21/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>>Sorry for the e-mail-outio praecox.  That last
>>>message was supposed to have read:
>>>
>>>and their French cousin (or cousine?), "emmerdé"
>>
>>On this side of the pond, we used to say "be-s-----n".
>>
>>Joel
>
>(be)shitten is amply attested on both sides of
>the pond, as I discovered when I was making the
>case for "spitten image" as the source of
>"spittin'/spit an' image", but the examples I
>found tended to be intended literally, while the
>participles (or other forms) of the French
>"(s')emmerder" and "faire chier" are mostly used
>in figurative contexts, unless I'm much mistaken.

I didn't say it wasn't used on the other side.

Joel

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