blowzy

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/20/2013 07:11 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 5:03 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >
> > On Jan 20, 2013, at 4:58 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> >> On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>
> >>> A bald-pated academic with rimless glasses and a measured, Ivy League
> >>> manner tells Candy Crowley that he hopes Obama's Inaugural
> speech "won't be
> >>> _blowzy_, out there, and timeless."
> >>
> >> Someone has actually *spoken* this word?! What did it sound like? That
> >> is, how is it pronounced? What rhymes with it?  Seriously!
> >>
> > I'd guess "lousy".  Certainly not "mousy", or "Suzy".
>
>According to the transcript, it was "blousy":
>
>---
>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1301/20/sotu.01.html
>[Don Baer, former chief speechwriter for Pres. Clinton:] And honestly,
>I will be looking to see whether he is able to call for common purpose
>but to do it in a way that isn't too blousy

Full of hot air?  (Not suggested seriously, but "blousy" is even more
amusing that "blowzy" in trying to figure out what this Ivy League
professor meant.)

>and out there and timeless
>but is, in fact, timely,

Aha!  "Timeless" means "with no relation to current time, current events".

Joel

>speaks to this moment and speaks to the
>people today in this country and also the leaders here in Washington
>who have to move us forward.
>---
>
>--bgz
>
>--
>Ben Zimmer
>http://benzimmer.com/
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org