deleriously = 'so as to impart delirium or ecstasy in the beholder or hearer; intoxicatingly; (hence, _broadly_) extravangantly; extraordinarily'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Headline typo for "deliriously."

JL




On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 4:32 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: deleriously = 'so as to impart delirium or ecstasy in the
>              beholder or hearer; intoxicatingly; (hence, _broadly_)
>              extravangantly; extraordinarily'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Typo for "deliciously"?
>
> Neal
>
> On Oct 27, 2010, at 1:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      deleriously = 'so as to impart delirium or ecstasy in the
> >              beholder or hearer; intoxicatingly; (hence, _broadly_)
> >              extravangantly; extraordinarily'
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I assumed this was a 20th C. usage, but I was wrong - at least insofar as
> it
> > relates to literal ecstasy or delirium. The 1851 may be considered
> > ambiguous:
> >
> > [1851 Thomas DeQuincey  _Essays on the Poets_  (rpt. Boston: Ticknor &
> > Fields, 1853) 286: The characters are all different, all marked, all in
> > position; by which, never assuming fixed attitudes as to purpose and
> > interest, the passions are deliriously complex, and the situations are of
> > corresponding grandeur.]
> >
> > 1856 _Dwight's Journal of Music_ (Oct. 18) 21: [Y]et how deliriously
> > beautiful, how soothing, or how exhilarating the harmony!
> >
> > 1884 _Punch_ 177 (Apr. 12): Beside him sat, or rather reclined in his
> arms,
> > a deliriously beautiful girl.
> >
> > 1911 W. J. L. Hughes _The Hughes Family and Connections_ (Owensboro, Ky.:
> > pvtly. ptd.) 163: Oh, how that carried my memory back to those glorious,
> > deliriously beautiful days that I passed in that delightful region more
> than
> > a half century ago. Calm, quiet, clear, tranquil, halcyon days were
> those.
> >
> > 1928 _The American Mercury_ XIV 17 [GB; not confirmed on paper]: [W]hat a
> > deliriously marvelous feeling of superiority it gave her.
> >
> > 1949 Phyllis McGinley in _Harper's Magazine_   CXCIX 80 [GB; not
> confirmed
> > on paper]: Few of us expect to be deliriously wealthy or world-famous or
> > divorced.
> >
> > 1955 _Popular Science_ (June) 102: It's because the SAC's planes, B-47
> > six-engine bombers, are almost deliriously complicated.
> >
> > 1989 Jim Conway _Friendship_ (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Pyrenee Books) 48: The
> > deliriously wonderful outcome was that I dated Janet several times.
> >
> > 2003 Thomas Cahill _Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea_ (N.Y.: Random House) 27:
> It
> > is this formula that Homer intends to reveal to us [in the Iliad], a
> > deliriously elaborate three-dimensional portrayal of human affairs.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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