"forgettable"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Victor

I would never have explained it the way you did, but I agree with your analysis.

DanG



On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 12:23 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "forgettable"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm not convinced. I see is more like "we wish it could have been
> forgotten". (The reply is both to RB and LH)
>
> Consider this chain. "Unforgettable" means two different thing--someone one
> cannot forget and something that is particularly noteworthy. The second one
> has nothing to do with forgetting--it's more of an intrinsic property of th=
> e
> moment.
>
> The antonym to the first one is "forgettable". The second one--not so much.
> But it is precisely this combination that spawns this particular instance o=
> f
> "forgettable"=3D=3Dnotorious. So it's actually an UNforgettable moment, but=
>  for
> the reason that is OPPOSITE of the ordinary UNforgettable moment. Hence it'=
> s
> the forgettable moment! It's like a cancellation of two un- prefixes.
>
> VS-)
>
> On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 9:03 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrot=
> e:
>
>>
>> On Jul 24, 2011, at 6:59 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>
>> > http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=3Dap-halloffameinductions
>> > "The switch-hitting Alomar won a record 10 Gold Gloves at second base,
>> > was a 12-time All-Star and a career .300 hitter. Full of baseball
>> > smarts and grace, he=92s also linked with one of the game=92s most
>> > forgettable moments -- he spit on umpire John Hirschbeck during an
>> > argument in 1996."
>> >
>> > So forgettable that it's still being talked about 15 years later?
>> >
>> > =97bgz
>> >
>> Hmmm.  "forgettable" =3D 'worthy of being forgotten'?  The negative
>> counterpart of "memorable"?
>>
>> LH
>
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