ept

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

This usage shows a lot of couth in my opinion.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
Date:         Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:57:49
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] ept

Not that I'd ever heard this before, but "socially ept" gets 21 Google
Books hits:

<http://books.google.com/books?q=%2B%22socially+ept%22&btnG=Search+Books>

And 3,730 Google hits:

<http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&source=hp&q=%22socially+ept%22&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=632e1c8883aa332a>

"Socially apt" gets a lot more Google Books and plain vanilla Google hits.

Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
German, French, Italian, Chinese => English
Huémoz - Aigle - Neuchâtel, Switzerland
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
paul.frank at bfs.admin.ch




On 21 March 2010 13:06, Damien Hall <djh514 at york.ac.uk> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:    American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:    Damien Hall <djh514 at YORK.AC.UK>
> Subject:   ept
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just heard the author Val McDermid, on the BBC ethical-debate show 'The Big
> Questions' (21 March 2010), say something like the following:
>
> '[my children are] well-adjusted and socially ept'
>
> OED only lists_ept_ as 'a deliberate antonym of "inept": adroit,
> appropriate, effective; hence_eptitude_,_eptly_ adv.', and the quotations
> back that up, all seeming to use it ironically. The word isn't in the
> online version of MW. From her tone, McDermid wasn't being ironic - there
> was no change of pitch or pause to call attention to the word - and no-one
> picked it up, though, granted, on that show you wouldn't expect them to
> (they were debating IVF at the time).
>
> MDermid was brought up in the late '50s and early '60s in Kirkcaldy, Fife,
> Scotland; I don't know whether that's relevant to the use of the form, but
> others here might. Has anyone else heard it non-ironically?
>
> Damien
>
> --
> Damien Hall
>
> University of York
> Department of Language and Linguistic Science
> Heslington
> YORK
> YO10 5DD
> UK
>
> Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
>   (mobile) +44 (0)771 853 5634
> Fax +44 (0)1904 432673
>
> http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb
>
> http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/people/pages/hall.htm
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org