[Ads-l] Heard

[Margaret Winters]

Or, perversely, the second-month anniversary falls in February and the ninth-day wonder comes after eight ordinary days.  I get a real meaning differences for those two.  First night jitters is clearly ordinal, of course, and first-night stand happens 1 January? the first of every month?.


Seventh-year itch pragmatically comes to the same thing as seven-year itch in that it is supposedly what happens in the seventh year of marriage - I have never noticed the oddity of 'seven year itch' which does not last seven years.


Inquiring minds...,

Margaret


----------------------------
MARGARET E WINTERS
Former Provost
Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 2:39 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Heard

Next:  The seventh-year itch.  Or, if you prefer, the first-night stand. (First-night jitters have to come from somewhere.) And the ninth-day wonder.

LH

> On Mar 16, 2018, at 12:10 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> "second-month anniversary" vs. the more-common "two-month anniversary"
>
> --
> -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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www.americandialect.org
Devoted to the study of English around the world.



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