[Ads-l] Heard

[Laurence Horn]

> On Mar 16, 2018, at 3:17 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 

Not that odd assuming it’s the itch you get after seven years, given how flexible English compounds are (an A B constrained if at all just to being a B that has something to do with A).  Compare “margarita hangover”, a hangover you get after margaritas, or a "prison release" (release from or after prison), or “storm aftermath".  


> 
> 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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