[Ads-l] extremist-adjacent

[Ben Zimmer]

I don't recall the WOTY discussion, but we had a thread on "X-adjacent"
here in 2015:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-August/138404.html

And I was quoted, along with Peter Sokolowski and others, in this 2019 NYT
Styles piece:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/style/are-you-adjacent.html

In both, I suggest an origin in real-estate lingo. Here's a 1989 article
with "Beverly Hills-adjacent":

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-08-re-112-story.html
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 8, 1989
"The BHPO [Beverly Hills Post Office] is not to be confused with 'Beverly
Hills Adjacent,' which is used in real estate ads for other areas skirting
the city."

--Ben


On Sun, Jan 31, 2021 at 12:37 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> We discussed -adjacent at one of our WOTY gatherings (can’t recall which
> year), but I don’t remember how much headway it made. Maybe Ben will recall.
>
> > On Jan 31, 2021, at 11:57 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> Deadline White House, MSNBC:
> >>
> >> "How sort of extremist-adjacent some of [the members of Congress] were."
> >>
> >> Another one of those lexicosyntactical shortcuts. Cf. "food-insecure,"
> >> "shovel-ready," etc.
> >
> > I have seen this construct: 'group'-adjacent for a few years. Here are
> > two examples from twitter in 2016: "alt-right adjacent" and "SJW
> > adjacent".
> >
> > https://twitter.com/GetToKnowDonald/status/769318254300962816
> > Timestamp: 7:38 PM · Aug 26, 2016
> > Twitter handle: WhatHasDonaldDoneNow @GetToKnowDonald
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > www.gettoknowdonaldtrump.trumperism. Lunatics take over the asylum.
> > Lifelong GOP wz always alt-right adjacent #CTL
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > https://twitter.com/HatredIsMyMuse/status/785018988178714624
> > Timestamp: 3:28 AM · Oct 9, 2016
> > Twitter handle: Action Economist @HatredIsMyMuse
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > some of the people doing this are SJW adjacent
> > [End excerpt]
> >
>

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