apocryphal = archetypal? unbelievable?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: apocryphal = archetypal? unbelievable?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Good enough for me, James. "Legendary" (in the sportscaster sense) is almost
> midway between "unbelievable" and "archetypal."
>
> If "infamous" can switch polarity, "apocryphal" can go sidewise
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 11:19 PM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca>wrote:
>
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>> Subject:      Re: apocryphal = archetypal? unbelievable?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Perhaps tangentially (or perhaps relevantly), I've recently seen
>> "apocryphal" used of incidents known by the user to have occurred to
>> mean "famous" or "legendary" or similar; Google "is now apocryphal",
>> "is now almost apocryphal", "has become apocryphal", and similar to
>> get some possibles for this. I didn't happen to record the specific
>> instance I saw it in most recently, alas.
>>
>> James Harbeck.
--

"Legendary" it probably is.

Kids these days!

Compare:

<<Yon _have_ returned or _are_ returning from London—from the great city
which is to me as apocryphal as Babylon, or Nineveh, or ancient Rome.>>

-- letter by young Charlotte Bronte, dated 1834, here published in 1892.

http://tinyurl.com/yh62cy2

-- Doug Wilson
**

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