"dominating" = "utterly submissive, ineffectual"

[Joel S. Berson]

The "problem" may go back centuries.  In "Lawtalk", one of whose
contributors is our very own Fred Shapiro, I find in the article
"wall of separation" that at the time of Jefferson's election as
president the Danbury Baptist Association wrote him a letter
"bemoaning their 'degrading' status as a religious
minority".  (Recovery of the context of "degrading" would require
tracing a source cited in a footnote.)

Joel

At 1/21/2013 08:00 PM, W Brewer wrote:
>{overwhelming lead : dominating lead :: overwhelming loss : *dominating*
>loss}.
>OTOH, could there be an underlying universal at work here? (:^o) Cf. a
>Chinese EFL tendency to generalize present participial forms for past
>participial function. E.g. occasionally, students would say/write {I am so
>boring.} instead of {I am so bored.}.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org