"Luck out"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 10/15/2011 8:33 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Luck out"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here apparently is another "lucked out," adj. :
>
> 1942 _Time_ (Sept. 28) 56: The Press: Lucked Out ... If indestructible
> Larry Allen's luck had indeed run out (his capture is still not
> officially conformed), he could console himself with the knowledge
> that his courageous efforts to get the news had made newspaper
> history. ...[He had] two miraculous escapes from death. ...Allen is
> the 18th U.S. correspondent ... to be taken prisoner on the job in
> World War II.
>
> This appears to be the only time Time has used th phrase.
--

Given the ellipticalness of the title (if I'm understanding correctly
that it is merely "Lucked Out"), no exact interpretation seems secure in
this case IMHO.

This example and a number of others were quoted in Mark Liberman's
Language Log posts, and in some appended comments.

To me, the transitive applications of the collocation (e.g., "They
lucked out a victory", "They lucked us out of the victory"/"We were
lucked out of the victory") seem entirely distinct from the intransitive
ones (e.g., "They lucked out and won", "They lucked out and lost"),
although I suppose one can inquire/speculate as to historical
connections. The "adjective" form seems to me to be basically a passive
participle reflecting a transitive application.

-- Doug Wilson

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