[Ads-l] Urban legend? Or fact?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 11:42 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Oct 6, 2016, at 11:04 AM, Robin Hamilton <
> robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM> wrote:
> >
> > I go for two syllables when I use it as a noun ("best beloved", as in the
> > Kipling _Just So_ stories, whether or not that was the way he pronounced
> it --
> > from the Arabian Nights originally?) and three when it's an adjective
> ("beloved
> > friend").
>
> Even predicative ("X is widely beloved/beloved by all")?  For me, as
> noted, these are bi-, not tri-.  And they're adjectives.  ("Despite his
> many scandals, he remains beloved to many")
>

Two syllables for me too when used predicatively, so it struck a sour note
hearing George Wendt described here as a "TV icon who is belovèd by all
right-thinking Americans" (40 seconds in).

http://www.avclub.com/video/cheers-george-wendt-identifies-movies-their-one-st-243040

--bgz

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