[Ads-l] Heard on the radio

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Apr 1 21:17:48 UTC 2015


> On Apr 1, 2015, at 5:06 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> during an ad for boxing on CBS, there was a commentary from a previous
> fight:
> "...going in for the 'proverbial' kill"
> 
> Doesn't 'proverbial' require an actual proverb?

as in "kicked the proverbial bucket": 
I think "proverbial" in such case basically = 'idiomatic' and such adverbs tend to lower into the idiom as adjectives

LH
> 
> I guess it sounds better than 'idiomatic' kill"...
> 
> DanG
> 
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