"second to none"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now I see.

I put quotation marks around "second to none."

The message told me that the OED's crack robot team had found no
matches for "second to none," but what it meant was no matches for
"'second to none'".

Reader, don't let this happen to you.

JL

On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 8:42 PM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "second to none"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hmm. I find sixteen examples when doing a full-text advanced search of
> OED entries, but even when entering "second to none" in the quick-search
> box, you get a bunch of hits, and with two hits in definitions.
>
> It's already been suggested that "second to none" be a specific lemma at
> _second_ pron., so searches were more explicitly find it, but if you
> really got _no_ results from an advances search, something's really
> wrong.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
> On Sun, Oct 09, 2011 at 08:29:40PM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> If you say so....
>>
>> But an advanced search from my obviously second-to-yours computer was
>> wholly rebuffed.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 8:24 PM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: "second to none"
>> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > On Sun, Oct 09, 2011 at 07:59:26PM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >> A search finds no trace in OED.
>> >
>> > Except, perhaps, for the mention at NONE pron. A.2.a., which
>> > cross-refers to SECOND adj. 2.a., "Hence, in negative and limiting
>> > contexts, Inferior (_to none, only to..._)," with quotations from
>> > Shakespeare onwards?
>> >
>> > Jesse Sheidlower
>> > OED
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org