pristine = 'faultless; perfectly executed'

[Charles C Doyle]

Perhaps it's just a hypallage, based on the phrase "pristine performance," as the phrase might describe near-perfection achieved by a diva or a gymnast (the phrase has 21,200 raw Google hits).

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 8:37 PM


Didn't seem like it. In fact, it still doesn't. Maybe the transcript will
eventually clarify.

JL

On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 8:30 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: pristine = 'faultless; perfectly executed'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10/2/2011 04:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >A nationally-known attorney tells CNN that Amanda Knox "has to be
> *pristine*
> >when she speaks to these people [on the jury]."
> >
> >He means absolutely perfect in performance. Not virginal or anything.
>
> Or does he mean "clean", in the sense of unbiased, un-predisposing?
>
> Joel

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