real time = 'a point or period of time in actuality'; (also adj.)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Aug 11 00:33:45 UTC 2010


At 5:38 PM -0600 8/10/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>1988 Nancy Anisfield in W. J. Searle, ed. _Search and Clear_ (Bowling Green,
>O.: Bowling Green U. P.) 58: [T]he charge...is enacted twice, once in real
>time (42 pages into the novel) and once in Paul Berlin's imagination.
>_Ibid._ 59: The novel is divided into real time...flashbacks...and
>imagination....[M]emory and imagination...are as important and powerful as
>"real time" thought.
>
>Not a surprise but kind of early. I think.
>
>JL

A classic retronym ("Back in *our* day, son, real time was all we
had")--wonder if the first uses were found not in book reviews but in
the context of television and movies or discussions thereof.

LH

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list