needy

[Jonathan Lighter]

1993 is pretty damned recent by  my standards. I was an experienced grownup
by then, who would have thought it sounded weird had I noticed it that
early.

Anyway, it's more specific as I've heard it than "in need of a thing."  I
have heard at least one kid admonished, "Don't be so needy!" (I.e., "quit
whining for attention.")

JL
On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: needy
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9/19/2012 09:26 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Cf. the recent disdainful sense of "needy," i.e., "needing or demanding
> >attention from another person."
>
> How recent is the disdainful" needy?  Or by "recent" do you mean
> "lately becoming more frequent"?  The OED has (2.b, "In need of a thing"):
>
> 1993   J. Green It: Sex since Sixties 420   Men are as needy of touch
> as women, if not more so, because they don't get as much as women do.
>
> Close, if not a cigar?
>
> And I have a feeling of its having entered my archives (neurons)
> earlier -- 1950s?  1960s?
>
> Joel
>
>
> >JL
> >
> >On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> ><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      victim = 'feckless irresponsible individual'
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Remember how "hero" is expanding to include a kind of victim?
> > >
> > > For the past 24 hours I've heard and read numerous comments to the
> effect
> > > that Mitt Romney "considers 47% of voters to be victims."
> > >
> > > But he doesn't. He said they think of *themselves* as victims. Because
> Mitt
> > > Romney still seems to know what "victim" means  .
> > >
> > > Of course, most people want to help victims, but that's not the point.
> The
> > > point is that Romney didn't say that putative people who believe the
> > > government owes them "medical care, food, housing, you name it" are, in
> > > *his* opinion, "victims."
> > >
> > > But that's how the press, pundits, and public are telling it, even when
> > > they go on to clarify the details.  GOP as well as Dem pundits.  At
> some
> > > level of their consciousness a "victim" is a kind of "loser."
> > >
> > > Nowadays it shows weak character to be a "victim."
> > >
> > > Instead of a "survivor."
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > > --
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> > >
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> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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