the precisely Adj N

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/27/2009 12:49 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
>On May 27, 2009, at 12:14 PM, Randy Alexander wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      the precisely Adj N
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Just saw this in a NYT article:
>>
>>"By the time the children go to bed, I am as drained as any mother who
>>has spent her day working, car pooling, building Lego castles and
>>shopping for the precisely correct soccer cleat."
>>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/fashion/27love.html?
>>_r=3&pagewanted=1
>>
>>(Quoted sentence is on the second page.)
>>
>>I would have to change that to "precisely the correct soccer cleat".
>~~~~~~~~~~
>What am I missing here?  "the precisely correct soccer cleat" sounds
>okay to me (aside from being a rather startling idea).
>AM

You're missing othing, I think, Alison.  "The precisely correct
soccer cleat" is the one that fits perfectly.  Think Industrial
Revolution and interchangeable parts.

Joel

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