Worse and worse

[Jonathan Lighter]

The miracle of autosuggestion persuades me that "more X than the next" is a
lot more common than I thought a few hours ago.

But "more X than the last" is the only version I'd use.

JL

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:25 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Worse and worse
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is it particularly different from older uses?
>
> http://goo.gl/mspHC
> > And so I shall proceed next to tell you, it is certain, that certain
> > fields near Leominster, a town in Herefordshire, are observed to make
> > the sheep that graze upon them /more fat than the next/, and also to
> > bear finer wool; ...
>
> This is from 1889 (Boston). There is some difference in that the Weigl
> quote is about something sequential and this one does not appear to be.
> Or, at least, you may believe so in isolation, until you read the rest
> of the paragraph:
>
> > that is to say, that that year in which they feed in such a particular
> > pasture they shall yield finer wool than they did that year before
> > they came to feed in it, and coarser again if they shall return to
> > their former pasture; and again return to a finer wool, being fed in
> > the finewool ground.
>
> So it's the same, after all. "More beautiful than the next" sounds
> rather ordinary to me (even if logically inconsistent), although it does
> appear to imply some unending sequence. But it does not necessarily
> mean, better than the one before it", but rather "each one splendid in
> its own right". But in the sheep example above, it really /does/ mean
> "better than the one before it".
>
>     VS-)
>
> On 3/16/2011 10:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > I can't offer a citation, but I've heard this logical reversal ("more X
> than
> > the next" instead of "...the last") more than once.
> >
> > Dyslogia?
> >
> > JL
>
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