[Ads-l] Heard: "Hey, is this one of ?_ours's_/?_ourses'_ birthdays?"

James A. Landau JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM
Tue May 24 13:36:20 UTC 2016


On Mon, 23 May 2016 21:55:57 zone-0400 Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>Asked of his buddies by a local middle-schooler.
>
>Oh, well. Language-change in progress.

The superfluous "es" is well-established in humorous verse, e.g.

     Under the spreading chestnut tree
     The village smithy snoozes
     No horse since nineteen thirty-three
     Has come to him for shoeses

(Note that the composer of this quatrain was under the impression that "smithy" was a variant form of "smith")

and in humorous dialog, e.g.

     I hate these meeses to pieces

Off-topic: the second quote reminds me of a crash blossom from the Reagan administration:  Nation's Hungry Attack Meese

- James A. Landau

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