[Ads-l] Antedating of Colloquial Use of "Like"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The nontraditonal colloquial use of the word "like" as a "marker, intensifier, or filler" is treated by the OED in its adverbial sense 6.b.  The OED's first use of this sense is dated 1950.  Wikipedia and other sources record a New Yorker cartoon of 15 Sept. 1928, in which two young women are discussing a man's workplace: "What's he got - an awfice?" "No, he's got like a loft"  It appears that the cartoon was on page 33 of the New Yorker issue.

Fred Shapiro



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