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Okay, I have nothing to post about today. Nothing at all, but instead of blather on about my lack of something, which is truly something, I figured I would have someone randomly find a word in the dictionary, and that will be my topic for the day.
Hang on, I will find someone who does not solely use an online dictionary, much like myself….
This is from Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Okay, I have to question when a dictionary has “Ninth New” in the title. Can it be the Ninth and still be New?) from 1988, pg. 551. Hey, dictionaries are hard to come by. The closest one I could find was merely 18 years old. There is a veritable dearth of dictionaries in the office. (point of note: veritable can only be used with the words dearth and plethora, and vice versa)
The entry randomly picked was:
hand to hand \-‘hand\ adv (15c) :in a manner involving physical contact
Hmmm… This is not to be confused with the prior entry
hand-to-hand \,han-tə-,hand, -də-\ adj (1836): involving physical contact
Well, this is going to be more difficult than I thought. I was hoping for something like “puppy.”
Okay, my hand to hand post.
I find it interesting that the difference between an adjective and an adverb, in this case is the removal of 2 hyphens. I cannot think of any other situation where this is the case. Usually, the “ly” marks the adverb from the other parts of speech, but, in truth, “hand-to-handly” does look rather stupid. I wish the dictionary in question had used “hand to hand” in a sentence, because I cannot for the life of me modify a verb with it.
I hand to hand ran. Doesn’t work. stupidly, quickly, etc… "ly" adverbs all seem to work with this sentence, but hand to hand just doesn’t.
This came in hand to hand handy. Nope, this doesn’t work either. “Very” is an adverb as well, but hand to hand does not adequately replace it in any sentence I can think of. Hmmmm. I cannot seem to find a way to use this word in a sentence without it being an adjective.
Well, this experiment did not work. I should have randomly chosen “puppy.”
To recap:
Random word generation blogging is not the wave of the future that I had intended
I am a little afraid that the pics I snapped of one of the bridges are not far enough away
I am not too afraid of that though
I still have not gotten a new response from “The Yeti”
I love the schwa, “ə”
It is completely under-used
Is there a state of being “whelmed?”
I have been overwhelmed, and I have been underwhelmed, but have I ever been “whelmed”
Hang on, I will find someone who does not solely use an online dictionary, much like myself….
This is from Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Okay, I have to question when a dictionary has “Ninth New” in the title. Can it be the Ninth and still be New?) from 1988, pg. 551. Hey, dictionaries are hard to come by. The closest one I could find was merely 18 years old. There is a veritable dearth of dictionaries in the office. (point of note: veritable can only be used with the words dearth and plethora, and vice versa)
The entry randomly picked was:
hand to hand \-‘hand\ adv (15c) :in a manner involving physical contact
Hmmm… This is not to be confused with the prior entry
hand-to-hand \,han-tə-,hand, -də-\ adj (1836): involving physical contact
Well, this is going to be more difficult than I thought. I was hoping for something like “puppy.”
Okay, my hand to hand post.
I find it interesting that the difference between an adjective and an adverb, in this case is the removal of 2 hyphens. I cannot think of any other situation where this is the case. Usually, the “ly” marks the adverb from the other parts of speech, but, in truth, “hand-to-handly” does look rather stupid. I wish the dictionary in question had used “hand to hand” in a sentence, because I cannot for the life of me modify a verb with it.
I hand to hand ran. Doesn’t work. stupidly, quickly, etc… "ly" adverbs all seem to work with this sentence, but hand to hand just doesn’t.
This came in hand to hand handy. Nope, this doesn’t work either. “Very” is an adverb as well, but hand to hand does not adequately replace it in any sentence I can think of. Hmmmm. I cannot seem to find a way to use this word in a sentence without it being an adjective.
Well, this experiment did not work. I should have randomly chosen “puppy.”
To recap:
Random word generation blogging is not the wave of the future that I had intended
I am a little afraid that the pics I snapped of one of the bridges are not far enough away
I am not too afraid of that though
I still have not gotten a new response from “The Yeti”
I love the schwa, “ə”
It is completely under-used
Is there a state of being “whelmed?”
I have been overwhelmed, and I have been underwhelmed, but have I ever been “whelmed”
10 Comments:
Dustin:
How odd, is that a quote from the movie? I have never seen that movie.
If it was a quote, or near quote, I apologize. I try very hard to not be terribly derivative without creditting my terrible derivativity.
In this case, I believe the adverb form would be thus: "They fought hand to hand." (How did they fight? Hand to hand.)
As an adjective, you would write, "It was hand-to-hand combat."
And yep, that is definitely from "10 things," one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies.
Oh, and I'm also fond of schwa.
lis:
Thanks for the clarification. Well, I apologize again for my uncreditted terrible derivativity.
schwa is good.
Do you think that when we gain a new word we should lose an old one?
CG:
Absolutely not. New words are fine and dandy, but old words are comfort.
sheesh!
*infinite smiling faces*
[i saw the movie but can't remember that part, but I'd say that it makes sense that whelmed is the normal, middle-ground state. If you're not over- or under- at the moment, then you're whelmed. By that logic, we have all been whelmed for most of our lives and never knew it. Go figure]
Jude:
Well, if anything, this post was at most, whelming.
I am clapping my hands-to-hands...
HUH?????
nancy:
I definitely should have rigged it, so I randomly selected "puppy." This Hand to hand nonsense is just tiring.
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