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#14513
01/03/2001 11:09 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
Does anyone know how long this has been around as an adverb, and where? A search of this site reveals an example of the usage I'm thinking of. Maverick wrote:
I have often thought about forming a Guy Fawkes Party, with the intention of re-introducing fireworks (big time) to the Mother of Parliaments, raddled old whore that she's become!
I thought it was British and of recent vintage, or recent popularity; then I found it in P.J. O'Rourke from about fifteen years back in this same sense.
(N.B. If it's a catchphrase from television or film, I am completely ignorant of both.)
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#14514
01/03/2001 2:04 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
big-time (adj, as used by mav in bigtime fireworks?) is in W3 <her presentation was definitely big-time> it is undated; not much of a stretch to use it as an adverb (re-introducing... bigtime?). AHD: adv : To an extreme degree; very much: “Sales are expanding, big-time.” [no date here either] all of which is to say that it's been around long enough to be lexicographed. 
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#14515
01/03/2001 5:46 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
As an adverb, you'd think that someone would have moved it to the more general syntactic form of adverbs. I look forward to seeing big-timely in future correspondence ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14516
01/03/2001 10:23 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Now CapK haven't you ever heard of letting sleeping dogs lay. Big-timely is positively ugly. Don't give anybody ideas.
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#14517
01/04/2001 5:46 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In reply to:
letting sleeping dogs lay
While hens may lay, I know of no dogs that do, since they are viviparous. (See my rant the other day about the confusion of lay/lie).
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#14518
01/05/2001 12:29 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
As an adverb, you'd...
Who you callin' an adverb? [emoticon for evil smile]
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#14519
01/05/2001 12:34 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Who you callin' an adverb? [emoticon for evil smile]Sorry, Anna - adverbess. Got to get these things right if you're going to play big-timely. {Even eviler smile emoticon] 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14520
01/05/2001 12:44 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 46
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 46 |
Cap in hand, Kiwi apologised: Sorry, Anna - adverbessIntriguing. Some time ago, she whose face launched a thousand ships expressed her intense dislike for words such as actreess, and aviatrix, words that differentiate between people performing the same task simply on the basis of their sex. The same Epic heroine, however, seems to prefer doing exactly that when it comes to hatmakers. She makes a distinction between milliners and hatters, based on the sex of the person who will wear the object made. How do ohers feel about this apparent ambivalence? 
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#14521
01/05/2001 12:47 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Yep, Kiwi, or if you're gonna run adverbially with the big dogs, the big Sitters -- or is that Setters? You know, the Irish ones that don't lay. [big-time evilest smile emoticon]
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#14522
01/05/2001 4:27 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Well, all I can offer is a Keeshond bitch who had a thing about mothering my Siamese cat's kittens. I'm sure if we'd had chooks, she'd have (s)mothered the chickens. Maybe lying in wait for them ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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