[Ads-l] "a regular Bulgarian army" (1917)

[Laurence Horn]

There's also the fact that unlike "real", which can replace "regular" in
many of these uses ("a real Romeo", "a real Rockefeller"), "regular", and I
suspect "veritable", can only be used for someone who isn't actually a
member of the category. So "He's a real Rockefeller" can be used either for
a member of that family or (usu. ironically) for someone who acts like a
(stereotypical) Rockefeller is expected to act, but "He's a
regular/veritable Rockefeller" can only be used in the latter way.  And not
just with proper names--"He's a real pig" vs. "He's a regular pig".

LH



On Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 10:22 AM Ben Yagoda <byagoda at udel.edu> wrote:

> The thing that strikes me about the sentence is the word “regular,” which
> I wrote about here:
> https://web.archive.org/web/20181113231301/https:/www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/11/13/in-which-i-make-like-a-regular-william-safire/
>
> The OED defines this sense of “regular” as "As an intensifier: complete,
> absolute, utter, veritable.” In my view this is a bit inadequate. Complete,
> absolute, etc. are okay but “regular” serves not so much as an intensifier
> as a simile-maker. And, at least in modern times, it’s usually ironic or
> humorous. So you could call someone “a regular Einstein” if they solved a
> couple of simple arithmetic problems, but hadn’t shown much genius beyond
> that. (All the better if they put on airs.)
>
> “A regular [proper name]” was in circulation well before 1917. The novel
> Transmigration (1874) by Mortimer Collins (1874) has the line of dialogue,
> “You’re a regular Romeo.” And an article in an 1858 edition of Young Men’s
> Magazine has “… each one voting himself a regular Napoleon.”
>
> Ben
>
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Date:    Fri, 19 Aug 2022 15:58:18 -0700
> > From:    Nancy Friedman <wordworking at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: "a regular Bulgarian army" (1917)
> >
> > The volunteer archivist at the bay swimming and boating club I belong to
> > has a question about a phrase she came across in a July 1917 club
> document:
> >
> > “Our athletes will be lost in the shuffle among a regular Bulgarian army
> of
> > contestants, and their chances of showing or even getting mentioned in
> the
> > papers are practically nix.”
> >
> > Any ideas about what the phrase signified?
> >
> > Nancy Friedman
> > @fritinancy
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date:    Fri, 19 Aug 2022 23:35:39 -0400
> > From:    ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: "a regular Bulgarian army" (1917)
> >
> > Nancy Friedman wrote:
> >> The volunteer archivist at the bay swimming and boating club I belong to
> >> has a question about a phrase she came across in a July 1917 club
> document:
> >>
> >> “Our athletes will be lost in the shuffle among a regular Bulgarian
> army of
> >> contestants, and their chances of showing or even getting mentioned in
> the
> >> papers are practically nix.”
> >>
> >> Any ideas about what the phrase signified?
> >
> > A search for “Bulgarian” and “Bulgaria” at Green's Dictionary of Slang
> > produced no matches.
> >
> > Wikipedia has an entry for “First Balkan War” which occurred several
> > years before the 1917 date.
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Balkan_War
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > The First Balkan War . . . lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and
> > involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Bulgaria,
> > Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan
> > states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior
> > (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically
> > disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Wikipedia also has an entry for “Second Balkan War” which also
> > occurred a few years before the 1917 date.
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Balkan_War
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria,
> > dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War,
> > attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 (O.S.) / 29
> > (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian
> > offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Newspapers in this time period contained many articles about the
> > Bulgarian army attacking and retreating. Perhaps the figure of speech,
> > “regular Bulgarian army of Contestants”, was inspired by news reports
> > of the Balkan Wars.
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > End of ADS-L Digest - 15 Aug 2022 to 19 Aug 2022 (#2022-204)
> > ************************************************************
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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