[Ads-l] cowardous, adj.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R.-Ill.) on Morning Joe today:

"That was a cowardous vote for those twenty-one Republicans."

Prob. orig. sugg. by a misapprehension of "That is cowardice!"

JL

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 7:04 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I doubt the EME usage ever went away entirely. The homophone "cowardice"
> encourages it, and it may sound smarter to some than "cowardly."
>
> JL
>
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> =
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> On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 8:50 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> If you go to the end of the hits, Google says, on page 16, that it has
>> omitted similar entries. If you have those displayed anyway, it ends on
>> page 33 with 326 hits.
>>
>> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
>> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>>
>> > On 4 Feb 2021, at 14:05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > And almost 9,000 hits for plain "cowardous."
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 5:04 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>> <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> OED has this "obsolete" syn. for "cowardly" from 1480-1608.
>> >>
>> >> Noah Webster had it in 1828, with the note "Not used."
>> >>
>> >> 2021 Rep. Barbara Lee (D.-Calif.) on_Deadline White House_ (MSNBC TV)
>> >> (Feb. 4):  I believe in many respects that the Republicans acted in a
>> >> cowardous manner. ... They are spineless and acting in a cowardous way.
>> >>
>> >> Google reveals 300 hits for "a cowardice [sic] manner" and bare handful
>> >> for "a cowardous [sic] way."
>> >>
>> >> JL
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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