[Ads-l] perfect = information acknowledgment

[Laurence Horn]

Aha! Now I understand why Trump keeps referring to his phone call to the Ukrainian president as “perfect”.

> On Feb 13, 2020, at 1:13 PM, Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      perfect = information acknowledgment
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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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> 
> 
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