From Slashdot:

[Joel S. Berson]

Wilson, you wrote:
>Can you really say that? I've always interpreted "run ... into the
>ground" as meaning "to do more than is needed or wanted, to carry to
>an extreme."
Note "run".

I responded to "*run* into the ground", which I understand, can say,
and the OED gives one definition of as
>"(b) to destroy or damage beyond repair by excessive use, to wear
>out; to exhaust or overcome through constant pressure,
>uncompromising or demanding treatment, etc."

If by "that" you meant "*drive* into the ground", I also can still
understand, and say, it as meaning "destroy, damage" (in certain
contexts).  Although I didn't find that in the OED.

If by "No, *I* can't 'drive morale" you meant yourself, I can, but I
can't disagree with you that you can't.  But then I don't know
whether or not you can say "*run* into the ground" with the meaning
of "destroy, damage".

Joel


At 4/9/2012 02:33 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 9:25 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > Yes you can, and I can too.
>
>No, I can't "drive morale into the ground" in the sense of "lower  or
>destroy morale." The only meaning of this idiom that *I* am aware of,
>despite the OED, whose basis is a different dialect - what the ADS is
>all about, right? - from mine. I have only the meaning, "(a) to carry
>(a thing) to excess, to overdo," as expressed idiomatically by "orig.
>U.S. to _run_ into the ground" and the concept of "carrying to excess,
>overdoing" *morale* makes no sense.
>
>OTOH, it's interesting to find out that the author of that sentence
>wrote as he did on purpose and not by mistake and that, for millions -
>presumably, since it's sanctified by the OED - of native-speakers,
>including Joel, the idiom *does* have the meaning, "(b) to exhaust or
>overcome [morale] through constant pressure, uncompromising or
>demanding treatment, etc.," which meaning makes *perfect* sense, in
>the relevant context of "massive firings and outsourcings."
>
>Youneverknow.
>
>--
>-Wilson
>-----
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-Mark Twain
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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