[Ads-l] _cowed_ > "cowered"

[Wilson Gray]

> ... there’s a bit of “cowered”/“coward” influence at play ...

That's my impression. IMO, the verb, _to cow_, is probably too rare. Only
we of the hypereducated class are aware of its existence. But, of course,
since the narrator knew that there was *some* such verb, perhaps he stabbed
in the dark and hit _cower_ in error.

Youneverknow.

The spree-killer in question was the one who shot up the picnickers on that
island-park in Norway.

On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 7:40 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Feb 25, 2018, at 5:08 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > Narrator of Spree Killer:
> >
> > "Their refusal to be _cowered_ stands strong.”
>
> Wonder if there’s a bit of “cowered”/“coward” influence at play as well.
> But likely it’s mainly a problem the somewhat moribund and perhaps
> confusing verb “to cow”.
>
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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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org