to "own"

[Jonathan Lighter]

You were merely distracted by the speaker.

JL


On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 8:50 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: to "own"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 8:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In a current weight-loss commercial, elderly knockout Marie Osmond's
> first
> > grandchild (allegedly) calls her "glamma!"
> >
> > "I can own that!" Marie beams. "I'm a Glam Ma!"
> >
> > OED 4b: "To acknowledge as due to oneself; to accept as deserved or
> > merited. Rare. Obs."
> >
> > A 1646 ex. only, and a splendid definition of what Marie says.
> >
>
> As Jonathan E. Lighter could own the field of historical American
> slangology, were he not too modest to acknowledge the accolades of his
> peers, as well as those of amateurs of the field.
>
> Nice, Jon! Though I've oft seen that commercial, my ordinarily-incisive
> mind failed to pierce to the heart of the matter.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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