[Ads-l] A new idiom: "get hyperthyroid about" = 'get hyper-excited about', 'get hyped up about'

[Virginia Euwer Wolff]

Ah, but “hyperthyroid” was making limited rounds in the 1980s, possibly earlier. I remember reading a literary critic who used the term “hyperthyroid prose” in a particularly stinging book review. I can’t recall the critic, the book, or the date. But I remember it the way we remember a vaccination. I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear John Bolton use it last evening. 

Sincerely,
Virginia Euwer Wolff


On Jun 25, 2020, at 8:35 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

John Bolton, interviewed tonight by Judy Woodruff on The PBS NewsHour, who asks him what lengths President Trump might go to in order to make sure he’s re-elected, given that he’s currently trailing in polls by double digits:

“Look, first off, I don’t believe these polls…Famously, in 2016, let’s just say it again so everyone remembers it, Hillary Clinton was substantially ahead, and she lost, because we don’t have a popular vote system, we have an electoral college. So before anyone gets hyperthyroid about what Trump may or may not do, just remember, I think this election is still a coin toss.”

Yup, hyperthyroid.  And if you’re wondering, Google informs us that the number of hits for the string “get hyperthyroid about” is “about zero”, which it illustrates.  Act quickly, though—this may change.

LH

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

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