[Ads-l] Heard

[Ben Zimmer]

I'm happy to see that the top G-hit for "N-year anniversary" is an On
Language reader response I wrote in 2010, followed by a post by Arnold from
2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18onlanguage-anniversary.html
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2012/04/20/anniversaries/


On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 3:51 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> FWIW, I just tried checked “ten-year anniversary” vs. “tenth-year
> anniversary”.  The former has 440 actual G-hits, the latter 190.
>
>
> > On Mar 16, 2018, at 3:37 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU>
> wrote:
> >
> > Good point, Larry - and therefore shouldn't seem odd.  Of course it is
> also conventionalized where the others you listed are not including
> seventh-year itch.
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------
> > 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 3:28 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Heard
> >
> >> 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"
> >>>
> >>>
>

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