[Ads-l] "hail" = characterize

[Jonathan Lighter]

So it could be even worse than I thought.

But "shocked" ('surprised, esp. pleasantly') is still my fave.

JL

On Sun, Apr 9, 2023 at 11:57 AM Margaret Winters <mewinters at wayne.edu>
wrote:

> I wonder if something like "called out" is slightly closer than
> "characterize" - all the characteristics are negative (to say the least),
> so there is a certain tone of condemnation rather than dispassionate
> consideration.
>
> ----------------------------
> MARGARET E WINTERS
> Former Provost
> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI  48202
>
> mewinters at wayne.edu
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2023 11:55 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "hail" = characterize
>
> [EXTERNAL]
>
> Must be that for every "enormity" or "notorious" or "terribly" that has had
> its pejorative stink bleached out, there's a "hail" that has bleached in
> the opposite direction, although I've never encountered this one before.
> The second law of lexical thermodynamics?
>
> LH
> LH
>
> On Sun, Apr 9, 2023 at 10:13 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Daily Beast,
> > https://www.yahoo.com/news/inside-ku-klux-klan-plan-032610250.html :
> >
> > *The Birth of a Nation* set the technical and artistic standards for the
> > up-and-coming movie industry and became propaganda for Klan recruitment
> as
> > it hailed Black people as sexual predators, political deviants, idiots,
> and
> > wastes of space when not in positions of servitude.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "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
> >
>
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> 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."

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