"But people sticking with Obama is my _pet pea_." [NP]

Wed Nov 21 16:31:37 UTC 2012

In Southern Illinois 'peevish' can also mean 'ill' or 'sick'. Occasionally I'd have hear someone say that their child was feeling 'peevish', and it was clear that they were not talking about temperament. That sense is not recorded in the OED, and a quick scan through the BYU Corpus of Historical American English doesn't turn up any cases (although this is not a systematic non-finding)

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)

----- Original Message -----

> From: "Charles C Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 11:07:10 AM
> Subject: Re: "But people sticking with Obama is my _pet pea_." [NP]

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "But people sticking with Obama is my _pet pea_." [NP]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> And "peevish" is not especially uncommon . . . .

> --Charlie

> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Herb Stahlke [hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 11:01 AM
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Also used as past participle, as in "being peeved," but I don't think
> I've
> heard that usage since I was a child.

> Herb

> On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 5:52 AM, Damien Hall
> <damien.hall at newcastle.ac.uk>wrote:

> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Damien Hall <damien.hall at NEWCASTLE.AC.UK>
> > Subject: "But people sticking with Obama is my _pet pea_." [NP]
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Looks like an eggcorn to me: a pea being something irritating, as
> > in the
> > story of The Princess and the Pea, it replaces the original
> > 'peeve', which
> > largely survives only in the phrase 'pet peeve'. Not in the
> > database yet,
> > though!
> >
> > Damien
> >
> > --
> >
> > Damien Hall
> > Newcastle University (UK)
> >
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> >

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