[Ads-l] shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jun 18, 2016, at 3:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> A lady in a commercial has just had her DNA tested so as to discover
> her true essence.
> 
> "The most shocking result was I'm 26% Native American!"
> 
> Time was that would have been an obviously racist remark.
> 
> JL

Couldn't "shocked" here just be 'very surprised', without affective content as to pleasantly or not, with the affect coming from the context?  I could imagine, for example, Mets' fans in 1969, or U.S. hockey fans in 1980, describing themselves as being shocked, as well as delighted, at the unexpected (or shocking) results.  

Here are a few Google hits (found by googling "I'm shocked that we won") that sound natural enough to me:

====================
Esquire's editor in chief, David Granger, said: "I thought we had a chance to win one [publishing award, in 2004], but I'm shocked that we won four."

"Findlay's a great team," Burnham said, "I'm shocked that we won as easily as we won, but I'm proud of the way our girls played."
[coach of girls' high school volleyball team]

“I'm shocked that we won, considering all of the amazing films on the roster this year.” said Cordero.
[film-maker whose "Inside a Change" won Best Picture at 2009 HBO Latino Film Festival]

"I'm shocked that we won. Happy, of course, but shocked. The narrative will be how the Bengals played down to the level of their competition...but credit the defense for playing the way we thought they were capable of and essentially shutting down one of the best offenses in the NFL."
[Texans fan commenting on blog post after Texans' upset win against the Bengals, Nov. 2015]
=====================

On the assumption (supported by the OED) that originally "shocked" always meant 'horrified, upset, scandalized', maybe this is a kind of intensifier bleaching, not uncommon (cf. "terrific") although not inevitable (cf. "horrific").

LH


> 
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 7:22 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>>> Although youneverknow.
>> 
>> In this case I do know. Intonation - affect - and three of four co-yakkers
>> agreed that Seth sounded great.
>> 
>> JL
>> 
>> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>> 
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'
>>> 
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> On Feb 25, 2013, at 7:15 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>> 
>>>> At 2/25/2013 04:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>> We've mentioned this before, but here's another good one. A yakking
>>> head on
>>>>> CNN says he was "shocked" to hear Seth McFarlane's singing voice at the
>>>>> Acade--- I mean at the Oscars.
>>>> 
>>>> So was Claude Rains.  Pleasantly surprised, surprised, I mean.  He
>>>> was expecting his winnings shortly.
>>>> 
>>>> Joel
>>>> 
>>> Ah, but the good Captain Louie was *pretending* to be unpleasantly
>>> surprised, surprised, or even scandalized, scandalized at the evidence of
>>> gambling.  The CNN guy presumably was not being ironic at the evidence of
>>> holding a tune.  Although youneverknow.
>>> 
>>> LH
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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