"jew" as adjective -- not in OED?

[Laurence Horn]

I would defend the label.  These are indeed, I would argue, nominal compounds rather than adjective + noun phrases.  "Jew" in such cases doesn't pass the diagnostics for adjective-hood:

That lawyer seems {Jewish/*Jew}.
Despite Brendan's proselytizing, Moises remained {Jewish/*Jew}.
It's very kosher/Jewish/*Jew

etc.

LH



On May 14, 2013, at 11:36 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> George, look way down under "Jew, n." for "Compounds" -- C1 is
> "General attrib. or as adj."  I've missed this disguised and low (on
> the page) artifice of the OED before, for this and other nouns.  I
> think the heading in such cases should be "n. and adj.".
>
> Joel
>
> At 5/14/2013 10:37 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>> Seems strange, but such is the case, if the on-line OED doesn't mislead me.
>>
>>            JEW BEEF. -- The subscribers offer their services to merchants
>> who are in the habit of trading to the West Indies, that in order to
>> complete a well assorted cargo for those markets, it will prove to be an
>> acquisition to apply to them for the above article; they are in 5 or 10
>> gallon kegs.  ***  Levy & Lyons, 26, White-hall street. N. B.  Regular
>> certificates will be given.
>>            Mercantile Advertiser, November 1, 1804, p. 2, col. 2
>>
>> HDAS and Jonathon Green's dictionary have "jew" as a disparaging adjective,
>> which isn't the case here.  Their examples are generally in the form of "a
>> Jew xyz" which translates into "a Jew who is an xyz" -- a Jew lawyer,
>> perhaps.  Here, it meant "kosher", and the ad was placed by a Jewish firm.
>>
>> GAT
>>
>> --
>> George A. Thompson
>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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