Quick meaning alive

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jan 2 22:41:03 UTC 2010


It seems "quickening" made it back into the mainstream out of the D&D
underground with the release of the Highlander films and the subsequent
TV series (where "quickening" signaled the approach of another
"immortal"). I have only had exposure to 1980++ English speech, but I
was aware of "quickening" in OB sense for some time, yet it is possible
that this came up through some period film rather than day-to-day
exposure. And, of course, it is a popular term with the D&D and
fantasy-fiction crowds (and authors)--hence the title "The Quickening".

     VS-)

On 1/2/2010 3:35 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> IMO, _quickening_ must still be quick (in the archaic sense) for a
> fairly large percentage of speakers, given that there was a movie
> entitled "The Quickening." OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised to discover
> that, for the majority of those who went to see the movie, its title
> had no referent other than as the title of a movie.
>
> -Wilson
>

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list