New words from Sleepy Hollow

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 21, 2014, at 6:12 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> Familiar with timesuck, but it's nothing compared to the "A-game" and
> "besties". I hope you were joking about these being new. "Besties" might
> have been teen slang a decade ago--or maybe two. But "A-game" sounds
> completely familiar for much longer than that and more associated with
> adults.
>
>

Not to be confused with agame 'in jest', which has indeed been around--since Chaucer (but is admittedly fallen into desuetude anymore, even in the formula "on earnest and agame" = 'every-which-way')

LH

> On 1/20/2014 8:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> ...Last week:
>>
>> "A boondoggle is an exercise in futility, a timesuck, a fool's errand."
>>
>> (So "timesuck" is now thought to be more familiar than "boondoggle."
>> 400,000 raw Google hits.)
>>
>> "We weren't exactly besties back then." (Best friends. 2,000,000 raw
>> Googlits.)
>>
>> "We need your A-game!"  (Your best and most comprehensive effort [to beat
>> Moloch]. Maybe a hundred thou RG's: hard to search for.)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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