positive "star-crossed"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sun Feb 5 21:31:55 UTC 2012


Are the "starry-eyed" cross-eyed, or just google-eyed?

Joel

At 2/5/2012 01:30 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 12:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > My guess is that it's "star-crossed lovers" is associated with Romeo &
> > Juliet, about whom pop culture remembers little except that they were
> > crazy kids in love.
> >
> > It also sounds a little like "starry-eyed," which is how lovers are
>
>The "starry-eyed" reanalysis makes sense for some non-romantic uses of
>the phrase, e.g.:
>
>http://www.fox43.com/wxin-indianapolis-native-and-former-indiana-offensive-lineman-james-brewers-switch-to-football-late-paved-his-way-to-super-bowl-xlvi-20120203,0,6340767.column
>"Don't blame Giants offensive lineman if he might have seemed a tad
>star-crossed at the prospect of being apart [sic] of Super Bowl XLVI."
>
>--bgz
>
>--
>Ben Zimmer
>http://benzimmer.com/
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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