"I was a consulting."

[Arnold Zwicky]

heard on the tv or the radio while i was working at my computer.  the
meaning was clearly 'I was a consulting X' (consulting engineer,
consulting surgeon, etc.).  i managed to write it down on a slip of
paper i keep by the computer, but was too consumed with what i was
working on to note the source, and now of course i've forgotten.

it's for my "conversion by truncation" file, mentioned here:
   http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/conversion-by-
truncation/
things like "attending" 'attending physician'.  most of my examples
are from ADS-L, it turns out.

these things are the devil to look for.  searching on {"I was a
consulting"} and similar things is obviously hopeless.  but cleverer
searches yield very small numbers of examples, with some from non-
native speakers, some almost surely errors for "consultant", and some
that appear to have "consulting" 'consultation' (the OED has an entry
for "consulting" vbl. n., but all the examples there are in composites
like "consulting room").

any bright ideas, or actual data?

arnold

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