new specif. sense: "abuse"

[Mark Mandel]

Deep down, I know no such thing.

m a m


On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 1:09 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Everybody who's ever watched Abbott & Costello knows that Lou takes a hell
> of a lot of abuse from Bud - mostly verbal.  It's right there on the
> screen. The following sentence suggests, however, that a more specific,
> more
> sinister sense of "abuse" is becoming fully lexicalized. (There's no
> contextual stage-setting and the idea is not developed further.):
>
> 2008 David Thomson_Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000
> Films_ (London: Penguin) 3: Deep down, we know that Bud has abused Lou - it
> is the secret in their films never quite arrived at.
>
> It's a review of _Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein_, number one on
> Thomson's alphabetical hit parade - chosen, as he admits, to get the book
> off to a "wilder" start than would number two, _Abe Lincoln in Illinois_.
>
> JL
>
>

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