[Ads-l] "fist-stamping"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

> On Mar 19, 2020, at 6:02 PM, Mark Mandel <markamandel at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Yes, "brought his hard fist stamping down" is as clearly related to the
> Huey Long example as "shook his fist, stamping his foot on the ground" is
> not. An interesting but on retrospect unsurprising extension of a sense
> normally reserved for feet and inanimate objects, like rubber stamps.
> 
> MAM

transitive "stamp" 'pound' is indeed generally used either of an action involving one's foot or feet, or with an object denoting an inanimate thing -- a pretty remarkable disjunction, by the way -- but it would of course be natural to extend it to an action involving one's hand or hands. the OED seems to have no such examples (though i might not have searched carefully enough), but i woud have no problem with "He stamped his fist on the table" or "His fist came stamping down", with "stamp" conveying something very close to "pound".

no doubt there are actual examples, but i'm not up to text searching.

arnold

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