Merry little prankster Goebbels
"Hanfstängl, who was trying to sleep off an attack of flu in a room of Göring’s presidential palace opposite to the Reichstag, had been awakened by the fire engines. He looked out of his window, saw the fire, rushed to the telephone and called Goebbels. ‘The Reichstag is on fire,’ he almost shrieked. ‘Tell the Führer.’ ‘Oh, stop that nonsense, Putzi. It is not even funny,’ answered Goebbels. ‘But I am telling the truth.’ ‘I am not listening to any more of your stale jokes. Go back to bed. Good night!’ And Goebbels hung up. The trouble was that just about four days earlier that merry little prankster Goebbels, to amuse Hitler, had played a telephone hoax on Hanfstängl. And when Hanfstängl called him with the Reichstag fire alarm he thought he was being hoaxed back...." (Sefton Delmer, Trail Sinister, quoted in Richard J. Evans, The Hitler Conspiracies-The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination)
In what sense is the word “little” used here?
Top answer
alibey1917 In what sense is the word “little” used here? MW online says it is "used as an intensive", not much help there. Cambridge says it is "used to emphasize an opinion that is being given about something or someone", which is more like it.
- alibey1917 In what sense is the word “little” used here?
- MW online says it is "used as an intensive", not much help there.
- Cambridge says it is "used to emphasize an opinion that is being given about something or someone", which is more like it.
- AHD is silent.
- People often toss in "little" that way to create the suggestion that the **** of the comment is childlike—ironically, as here, or not.
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alibey1917In what sense is the word “little” used here?
MW online says it is "used as an intensive", not much help there. Cambridge says it is "used to emphasize an opinion that is being given about something or someone", which is more like it. AHD is silent. People often toss in "little" that way to create the suggestion that the ****
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