[Ads-l] "make love"

Benjamin Barrett gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Sat Oct 18 08:08:15 UTC 2014


> On Aug 18, 2014, at 9:54 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 10:54 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> nowadays the preposition
>> "with" is probably preferred to "to."
>> 
> 
> I haven't come across this "make love with," yet. With any luck, I never
> will. If "make love to" was good enough for both Jo Stafford and Muddy
> Waters, it's good enough for me. ;-)

Coming in very late, but I agree. The preposition “with” sounds wrong to my ear.

I stumbled across what is probably a late usage of “make love” meaning “being amorous.”

“Wonderful Woman” in _Secrets of the Heart_ by Pearl S. Buck, p. 61, 1976. Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Toronto.

As Buck lived until 1973, it’s posthumous. 

-----
	“Of course you must go. I understand,” she said slowly.
	His face took on its anxious look. “Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps—I am away too much.”
	Oh, she was afraid of ghosts. She freed herself to laugh.
	“Oh, silly darling, no! I was just making love to you. Of course you must go….”
-----

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home

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



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