More on Britishisms in AmE
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Oct 2 06:04:54 UTC 2012
On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 11:35 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> The Phrase Finder website of Gary Martin has a relevant discussion.
> The earliest example of the phrase "plum(b) tuckered out" that he
> found was in 1871 and the "b" was omitted.
"Page not found," sadly.
What does he have to say about the etymology of the adverb, "plum"?
FWIW, Missouri writers of note - e.g. Florida's Mark Twain and Saint
Louis's Kate Chopin - went with _plumb_. It's probably reading their
work from a young age, when my opinions were still malleable, that has
caused me to prefer that spelling. Besides, it makes the WAG-semantics
clearer: a line that is plumb straight is a very straight line.
--
-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
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