Heard on The Judges: _for a minute_ = "over a long period of time," etc.

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:32 PM -0500 2/18/11, Wilson Gray wrote:
>  A
>Portuguese-American Army buddy, a graduate of Choate - before I met
>him, I thought that _Choate_ was pronounced "Cho-Ate;" it's that
>internal -a- or that word-final -e; _Choat_ or _Chote_ and I'd have
>gotten it right the first time - was fascinated by this bit of BE.

Just up the road from here; I think I've seen jokes based on "in
Choate" vs. "inchoate", spelled a lot more similarly than they sound,
but I can't remember or reconstruct any at the moment.

>Speaking of time, in Saint Louis there was use of _a *while*_ to mean
>"never," as in:
>
>"If you're waiting on Mary, then you're going to be waiting a
>*while*!" (She has stood you up.)
>
>"If you're waiting on John for that bread, then you're going to be
>waiting _a *while*_!" (He has no intention of paying you back, or, He
>has no intention of lending you the money.)
>
>"If you're looking for the Arch, then you're going to be looking a
>*while*! (You can't get there from here.)
>

or "a while" as understatement for "forever", judging from these contexts

LH

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