[Ads-l] smidget

[Jonathan Lighter]

FWIW, the speaker grew up in California but spent some years in Texas.

JL

On Tue, Dec 5, 2023 at 8:37 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> > On Dec 5, 2023, at 5:55 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > 'Smidgen.'
> >
> > MSNBC:
> >
> > That was just a smidget of what she had to say.
> >
> > JL
> > --
>
> A purported regionalism cited in DARE according to this OUP blog:
>
> https://blog.oup.com/2012/04/smidget-regional-terms-american-english/ <
> https://blog.oup.com/2012/04/smidget-regional-terms-american-english/>
>
>
> smidget
> Like smidge, this southern word always means a tiny amount of something,
> often food. Citations show people discussing smidgets of corn, cake, cream,
> trouble, and other delicacies.
>
> The full entry in DARE (with no regional annotation) is:
>
> A small amount; a small piece (of food).
>
> So I guess the question is whether the full amount of “what she had to
> say” would count as a delicacy.
>
> LH
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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