sunset

[Jonathan Lighter]

The difference between "sunset" and "expire" seems to be that when things
"sunset," you're supposed to be so sad to see them go.

JL

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 10:39 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: sunset
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jan 7, 2010, at 5:55 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
> > ... I
> > got 41k raw googits for "will sunset," putting the search string in
> > quotes.  After scanning the first ten pages I would guess that maybe
> > 30-40 percent were transitive or intransitive verbs meaning "terminat,
> > expire."
>
> and the "sunset provision" verb has a subentry (of the general
> "sunset" entry) in OED2, where it's marked as north american.  there
> are cites for both intransitive and transitive uses, from 1978 on.
>
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