"squint" = "narrow one's eyes" not in OED?

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 3 13:45:38 UTC 2011


Incredible but true.

JL

On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 12:11 AM, 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:      "squint" = "narrow one's eyes" not in OED?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The term "squinting modifier" (what I'd call a forward/backward attachment
> ambiguity) never made sense to me until I learned that "squint" can mean
> "be
> cross-eyed or wall-eyed, seem to look in two directions":
> http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/squint/
>
> More surprising is that my definition, "narrow one's eyes", isn't in the
> OED
> at all, as far as I can tell.
>
> Neal Whitman
> Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
> Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
> Twitter: @LiteralMinded
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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