[Ads-l] grades on the nerves

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 11, 2017, at 9:11 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> From a local review of a Beef and  Boards production of "My Fair Lady" in
> today's Anderson (IN) Herald-Bulletin:
> 
> Her cockney [sic] accent grades on the nerves--as is intended.
> 
> There are only five Google hits on the literal phrase, one of which is
> today's, and another eight hits for "grades on my nerves," so perhaps just
> beginning to spread.  The earliest hit for either comes from 2011.
> 
> How long before it makes MWDEU?
> 

If we make allowances for the reviewer’s (and editor’s) usage by acknowledging the inevitability of transparency loss, the relative infrequency of the verb in question, and so on, does that count as grating on a curve?



LH

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