so = 'absolutely; utterly; such'

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 8:15 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> The news-gatherers at CNN report that international cultural
> super-icon Snooki has tweeted "I love my tattoos" and "Today is soooo
> [sic] a cuddle day."
>
> The use of endemic current "so" (or, as usu. pronounced,
> /sou::::::::::/ [more or less]) immediately before an article is new
> to me.

Well, what Arnold terms "GenX so" has been modifying predicate NPs for
quite a while -- I'm not sure why the presence of an article modifying
the NP would be especially noteworthy. The OED cites an example that
Jesse uncovered from 1979, in the Woody Allen movie _Manhattan_: "Oh,
please, you know. God, you're so the opposite!"

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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