"man up" (v) [and a new "vociferously"]

[Jonathan Lighter]

Sharron Angle told Harry Reid to "man up!" in their debate last night.

CNN suggested that no riposte was possible without alienating female voters.

I can only suppose then that "grow up!" is no longer current or
understandable.

JL

On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 6:01 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "man up" (v)  [and a new "vociferously"]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4:11 PM -0400 10/15/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >Ben Brantley, in his review of "La Bete" today, writes "Here he [Mark
> >Rylance, in the title role] mans up to become the comic aggressor,
> >the unstoppable, primitive force of chaos that rages through Mr.
> >Hirson's 1991 play ...".  (This is contrasted with his "passive,
> >put-upon patsy" in "Boeing-Boeing" two years ago.)
> >
> >Joel
> >
> ...and I just heard the other man up, from football commentator (and
> former quarterback) Ron Jaworski, about a defensive strategy in a
> recent football game that dictated switching from a zone defense to
> "manning up", i.e. going to a man-to-man defense, with no machismo
> involved.
>
> Speaking of sports contexts, I just heard a radio interview with
> baseball announcer (and former catcher) Tim McCarver, who was asked
> about how the San Francisco Giants' longhaired fastballer Tim
> Lincecum manages to lead the league in strikeouts while weighing in
> at a slender 160 or so pounds. McCarver referred to the torque
> Lincecum gets into his throwing motion--Lincecum, opined McCarver,
> "turns his body more...vociferously, for want of a better word, than
> anyone".  Without having checked, I suspect that McCarver's usage
> doesn't fall under any of the OED subentries for "vociferously".
> (Maybe he's been watching too much tennis--those guys, especially the
> women, definitely do get pretty vociferous out there.)
>
> LH
>
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