gripe

[Paul Johnston]

As someone who has lived in both countries--not really (well, maybe in the Pacific Northwest, but I never lived there, just heard about it).

Paul Johnston



On Oct 18, 2010, at 9:18 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Subject:      Re: gripe
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does it ever piss down with rain in America the way it does here?
>
> Robin
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Victor Steinbok" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:08 AM
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: gripe
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: gripe
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Both "pissed" and "pissed off" are attested in AmE and I would judge
>> them widespread (I've heard both versions pretty much everywhere I've
>> been--and they are both even picked up by foreign English speakers,
>> e.g., the Dutch who've never been in the US). There might be some
>> distributional difference--e.g., I suspect, "pissed" has a slightly
>> narrower context, such as "I am pissed" or "This got me pissed", but not
>> "?I got pissed about Alan's promotion." (To my ear, "pissed off" would
>> be measurably better here.) Most of the time, however, they are
>> semi-interchangeable.
>>
>> I have never heard "pissed"==drunk in the US outside of British TV shows
>> (or English characters in films). But "get piss drunk" is quite
>> common--at least among the Boston Irish-American contingent. Then, of
>> course, there is the indignity of being "piss poor", but, I suspect,
>> that flies on either side of the Atlantic.
>>
>>    VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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