Worse and worse

[Garson O'Toole]

Here are some examples. I suspect that the word next is being
re-interpreted. The ordering property of "next" is ignored. For
example, "next day" might mean "some other day" or "another day."
Consider the contrasting examples further below.

Stetsons, Spring and Wedding Rings: Rocky Mountain ... - Page 96
Jillian Hart, Judith Stacy, Stacey Kayne - 2009 - 288 pages - Google
eBook - Preview
Happiness lapped through him, and it was his future he saw, with every
day happier than the next and every night filled with passion. Not to
be disrespectful, but that was sure something he was ready to
discover. ...

The complete fairy tales and stories - Page 1056
Hans Christian Andersen, Erik Christian Haugaard - 1983 - 1101 pages - Preview
Letters came from Hans, one happier than the next. The family he lived
with were well to do and ever so nice, but the best of all was the
school. There was so much to learn that he wished he could live to be
a hundred and become a ...

Berry, me, and Motown: the untold story
Raynoma Gordy Singleton, Bryan Brown, Mim Eichler - 1990 - 344 pages -
Snippet view
Each and every frame of our life together was happier than the next.
In one scene the place was swarming with all the characters who were a
part of our work. Berry would zoom through the living room calling
out, "Ray, I need you and ...

Here are some contrasting examples. The use of "next" here is
unobjectionable because there is no standard ordering invoked by
"next":

Punch: Volume 187
Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor - 1934 - Snippet view
IT ISN'T JUST LUCK that he's healthier and happier than the next man.
He uses Forhan's for the Gums, and Pyorrhoea has no opportunity of
poisoning his system. Every day for years he has massaged his gums
.with Forhan's, and teeth are ...

The economist: Volume 296
1985 - Snippet view
But thank you very much, says Mr Charman senior from his 500-year-old,
stone-roofed farmhouse, he doesn't fancy it swamped by bricks and
mortar, he hasn't heard that even millionaires live happier than the
next man, and both generations

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:25 PM, 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: 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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