-est x3

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:50 PM -0400 6/14/10, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>Am I the only one suspicious of "car-drivingest" from 1843? Or 1869?
>DanG

car = 'cart, wagon'?

LH

>
>On 6/14/2010 3:45 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Garson O'Toole<adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: -est x3
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>William Makepeace Thackeray used a similar humorous construction in
>>The Irish Sketch Book. The Britannica (1911) says the Irish
>>Sketch-Book came out in 1843. The information below is from an 1869
>>edition:
>>
>>Cite: 1869, The Irish Sketch Book: and Notes of a Journey from
>>Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Page 236, Smith, Elder and Co., London.
>>
>>THE little tour we have just been taking has been performed, not only
>>by myriads of the "car-drivingest, tay-drinkingest, say-bathingest
>>people in the world," the inhabitants of the city of Dublin, but also
>>by all the tourists who have come to discover this country for the
>>benefit of the English nation.

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