"Shaven"

[Laurence Horn]

Maybe so, but there are more than a few hits for "clean shavin'" (with or without apostrophe), suggesting a reanalysis from a perhaps moribund perfect participle.  Google in fact, while offering "about 52,600 results" for "clean shavin", wonders forlornly whether I perhaps meant "clean shaven".  The latter gets over 4 million raw ghits, some for a 1990s movie "Clean, Shaven".

LH

On Jun 25, 2012, at 8:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> "Clean-shaved," OTOH, sounds crazy..
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 8:35 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "Shaven"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> shaven : shaved. Every once in a while I?ll get all shaven & shorn for
>> something important, like the preacher who married the maiden all forlorn,
>> who milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that kicked the dog, that chased
>> the cat, that killed the rat, that ate the malt, that lay in the house of
>> pancakes.
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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