filthy

[Jonathan Lighter]

Isn't a slider "filthy" because it's specifically sneaky or tricky rather
than broadly "cool" or "sweet"?

JL

On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 2:16 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: filthy
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've heard it too, but 1) not in baseball (I don't follow baseball,
> generally, and only watched the last inning today); 2) it's not
> documented. I'm not claiming primacy in any way, but the usage should be
> on the record. As for (1), think of the emotionally positive use of
> "filthy rich".
>
>      VS-)
>
> On 10/26/2012 12:34 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > On Oct 26, 2012, at 12:00 AM, Alice Faber wrote:
> >
> >> On 10/25/12 11:14 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> >>> Commentary from the WS broadcast, on Romo's strike-out pitch: "That
> >>> pitch is just filthy!" Yet another migration into positive territory.
> >>
> >> I've heard that usage for years.
> > Same here.  I just tried googling "filthy slider" and got a bunch of
> results, including one describing Brad Lidge's out pitch, and that was ages
> ago--or at least six or seven years, before he fell off the map.  There are
> a few hits from google books, including one from Chad Harbach's _The Art of
> Fielding_ (discussed on an earlier thread, for that "not not not crazy"
> young woman).  I think the collocation with "filthy slider" is more common
> than, say, "filthy fastball" or "filthy two-seamer", although those pitches
> are well attested on google as well.
> >
> > LH
> >
> >> Unfortunately, Google Advanced Search
> >> doesn't seem to have a way to limit a search to a date range, making it
> >> hard to present actual evidence!
>
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