[Ads-l] cowardous, adj.

[Jonathan Lighter]

NBC News correspondent Ali Arouzi in Kyiv yesterday:

"[The Russians] do the cowardous thing and hit the civilians here."

1935 Frontier (O'Neill, Neb.) (July 11) 8: Venal, cowardous, treacherous.

1997 Detroit News (Apr. 25) 1:  Hartzler cited a file in McVeigh's sister's
computer marked "ATF READ"...."Die, you spineless, cowardous bastards!"

2016 Staten Island Advance (NYC) (Oct. 4) 7: "I'm proud of that flag..,"
LoBaido said. "It's so lazy and cowardous to sit on the field...and
disrespect the national anthem and the flag like that."

JL

On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 9:36 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Not transcription errors.
>
> I heard them live and loud and jotted them down immediately.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 9:33 AM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> If these were TV programs, how do we know what the speakers were SAYING?
>> These appear to be transcription errors, possibly attributable to nameless
>> interns at the stations.
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 8:23 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Rep. Madeleine Dean (D.-Pa.) on Deadline White House the other day:
>> >
>> > "Mr. McCarthy is calculating. He is cowardous."
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 7:25 AM Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > 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
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> =
>> > >>
>> > >> 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."
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."

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