Username
speedwell2
Member Since
February 3, 2004
Total number of comments
477
Total number of votes received
1465
Bio
Latest Comments
“by” vs. “of”
- March 31, 2005, 7:45am
Of course you can possess integrity or loyalty.. That's absolutely correct. Whether you can be "possessed of" them is a little different; strictly speaking you can (it's not absolutely wrong), but as Ed and CQ point out, it sounds strange to the average modern speaker.
You still sometimes see it used in a wry sort of way, though, for instance: "As Mark walked out of his drunk girlfriend's apartment, he slyly possessed himself of her car keys so she wouldn't be able to drive that night." Or, Mom's favorite, "You can't just walk up and possess yourself of anything in the fridge."
Note the use of "himself," "yourself," etc.
The last serious use I saw of this construction was in a Victorian-era novel, in which the hero had befriended a man in trouble, who later turned out to have been a nobleman; upon that nobleman's death, our hero suddenly "found himself possessed of the old gentleman's entire legacy."
Commas and Quotation Marks
- March 29, 2005, 10:06am
Who, me? Um... yeah, that's how my partner thinks I drive, anyway. LOL
Commas and Quotation Marks
- March 28, 2005, 7:10am
Sure, as soon as you Brits start to drive on the correct side of the road. :))
Realize or realise?
- March 28, 2005, 7:09am
OK, nice to hear from an expert. Got any links to material that supports and enlarges upon the claim, Dennis?
politics in the kitchen...
- March 24, 2005, 8:07am
OK, I'm going to go do actual work now....
politics in the kitchen...
- March 24, 2005, 8:07am
Not to mention what goulash looks like to the people below you when you throw it, lukewarm, over a balcony at a movie theater while making juvenile retching noises....
OK, I swear I've never actually DONE this, so the movie buffs in the group need not crucify me....
L
- March 24, 2005, 8:02am
Heretic!! Burn the heretic! Burn the.... waaaaaaait....
politics in the kitchen...
- March 23, 2005, 9:38am
As an ethnic Hungarian who regularly makes goulash (my father insists on "gulyas," its spelling in Hungarian), I guess I'm a cooking expert :) but I have nothing to add to what Persephone said, since I actually had never heard the term before.
But given that goulash is a stew, and Communism presumably follows the marxist doctrine of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need," the term makes me think of the fable "Stone Soup." (grin)
L
- March 23, 2005, 9:28am
Oh, my, we have a word that isn't in the dictionary. Whatever did the language do before there were dictionaries? Were all the words just wrong?
Questions
Taking the Name, in vain or in earnest | September 23, 2004 |
you all
It's "Hey, you," or "Hi, you guys."