"a day that will live in infamy" (in a positive way)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/2/2012 11:58 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>Since when did this Yiddish term enter common English? I heard it from Jews
>while growing up in NYC, but am surprised at its universality today.

I too, but since it entered my personal common English I didn't think
twice.  :-)

But for your annoyance, try searching Google Books for "verklempt"
before 1975.  (There are no hits before 1950.)  GBooks claims about
612 results, but shows only a half dozen and behaves strangely when
any page beyond the first is selected.  And no, I don't find it in
"84, Charing Cross Road": (snippet) or "Peyton Place" (preview) or
Randall Jarrell's "The Animal Family" (snipppet) or James's "The
Golden Bowl" or Graham Greene's "England Made Me" (preview) or
Buroughs'/Ginsberg's "The Yage Letters" (snippet).

Similar problem with other "before" dates.  Without a date limit
seems to work.  As do dates moving back through the 1990s up to 1993,
which shows an actual "verkplempt" in 1992 -- but that does not show
up if one specifies "before [December] 1992".

Joel


>DanG
>
>
>On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 12:08 AM, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > verklempt
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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