ears peeled

[Baker, John]

        We do have several terms for poor but not absent sight,
including half-blind, purblind, and the archaic sand-blind, as well as
the more specific near-sighted, myopic, astigmatic, and others.  I don't
know of any similar expressions for the senses of touch, smell, or
taste.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Michael Sheehan
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 10:12 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: ears peeled

I came across a similar extension of sensory description a few years
ago when a listener asked why there is no hard of seeing to match hard
of hearing.

Hard of hearing was extended to hard of seeing by the New York State
Services for the Blind: "Sometimes people refer to low vision as being
'hard of seeing' or a little bit blind."

The Smelly Car episode of Seinfeld contained this exchange.
Jerry:  "Do you smell something?"
Elaine:  "Do I smell something? What am I, hard of smelling?"

 From the Times-Picayune: "Sometimes, there's too much of a good
thing, especially when flavors are boosted to levels that seem pitched
to the hard-of-tasting."

I never did find a decent instance of hard of touching.

Mike Sheehan
seniors.tcnet.org=

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