[Ads-l] perfect = information acknowledgment

[Margaret Winters]

It is probably related to the approval servers in restaurants seem to think they have to give to your order:

  *   I'll have the chicken
  *   Excellent! or, sometimes Perfect!

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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 Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 1:13 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: perfect = information acknowledgment

It is, however, very wide spread. Seems to be primarily millennial servers
(restaurants as well as coffee shops). In Canada as well as the US.

Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
geoffnathan at wayne.edu

From: Barretts Mail<mailto:mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 1:10 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: perfect = information acknowledgment

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I dislike this quite a bit, but I hear it in all sorts of situations =
where I=E2=80=99m giving a person, who is working, information.

Made-up examples:
A: What would you like?
B: A latte.
A: Perfect.

C: What day would you be available to come in?
D: Monday.
C: Perfect. And what time?
D: Two.
C: Perfect. We=E2=80=99ll see you then.

At one time, perhaps this really meant =E2=80=9CHey, that works =
perfectly,=E2=80=9D but I do not understand it that way now.

I don=E2=80=99t see this in the OED, Merriam-Webster or Wiktionary.=20

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA=

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