[Ads-l] wild-ass vs. wild-assed

[Wilson Gray]

I noticed that somebody on LL assumes that "bad-ass'" and "kick-ass" are
the same construction when, clearly, they're not, even if you don't analyze
_bad-ass_ as a clip of _bad-assed_.

On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mark Liberman posted about this on Language Log.
>
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=29154
>
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 7:54 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > We've talked about "-ass" vs. "-assed" before...
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-June/
> > thread.html#142887
> >
> > ...and now it's in the news.
> >
> > In a U.S. Senate debate in Kentucky, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray spoke of
> > Sen. Rand Paul's "wild-assed philosophies and theories," though news
> > outlets tended to transcribe it as "wild-ass." WFPL's Laura Ellis
> > talked to Univ. of Kentucky linguist Jennifer Cramer about it.
> >
> > http://wfpl.org/go-linguist-dissects-jim-grays-wild-ass-zinger/
> >
> >
> >
>
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>



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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