[Ads-l] Read: The Memo: Five Republicans who could _primary_ Trump in 2020

[Ben Zimmer]

See the OED entry for "primary" v., sense 3 (trans.) "to oppose in a
primary election," with cites back to 1958. Intransitive "primarying" goes
back even earlier.

I provided the earliest known cites used by the OED for both transitive and
intransitive "primary" in a 2008 post here:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-October/085065.html


On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 3:13 PM, Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> Headline verbification?  First I could find was August, 2017,
> interestingly, one of those who could _primary_ Trump, Sen. Flake might
> have his own troubles:
> Disgraced ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio could primary GOP Sen. Jeff Flake
> from the dailykos - also in August.
> No, really: Which of these five Republicans will primary Trump in 2020
> and a new (to me) nickname for Trump
> Assuming he survives that long 5 Republicans could primary donjohn in 2020
> Despite the implication, from a right wing blog.  Maybe a further right
> blog.
>

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