It's amaze

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 11:55 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
> In a new Jack-in-the-Box commercial with Rachel Grate as the social
> media intern who can't comprehend the world without the Internet, Grate
> says "it's amaze" to which Jack says, "-ing."
>
> I can't find the commercial online yet, but I saw it a couple of times today
> as a smartphone commercial.
>
> September 19, 2005 by Jen (jennifer_o_jenny),
> http://newbabynews.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html
> -----
> Instead of saying "It was amazing" she says "It was amaze". Every single
> time she says it like that. I have to bite my tounge not to correct her. I don't
> know if she's saying "amaze" or "a maze" but either way it's wrong and
> makes me want to lunge across the table screaming "AMAZING AMAZING
> AMAZING!" just to get her to say it right. It's strange how something so
> small can drive you so nuts. It's amaze really.
> -----

Adjectival "amaze" is also the basis for "amazeballs", a contender in
the Most Unnecessary category at ADS WOTY 2011, covered in the Spring
2012 installment of "Among the New Words": http://bit.ly/ATNW87-1

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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