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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

Word pairings

More than once someone has used a particular adjective-noun pair (and less commonly an adverb-adjective pair) that struck me as being slightly odd, when you actually thought about the meaning of the adjective (or adverb). Importantly, it is never meant literally. In many cases, plenty of other adjectives would suffice to give the same intended meaning, but typically only one is used.
These pairs are entrenched as part of the language and almost every native speaker has heard of them and knows what they mean. Some have reasonably clear derivations, others are much harder to explain. Anyway, I'll list a few of what I think are the best examples here, and welcome any additions, explanations, comments or points of rebuttal.
strikingly beautiful (striking beauty)
consummate ease
shining example
morbid curiosity
yawning gap
crying shame
crashing bore
stone cold
barking mad
sneaking suspicion
thorny issue
bitter end
sweet surrender
hearty meal
winning smile
golden moment
spitting image
striking resemblance
smashing success
resounding success
cold comfort
blind ambition
glaring mistake
pale imitation
excruciating detail
deathly pale
livelong day
eminently sensible
screeching halt
frightful bore
  

Top answer

[nq:1]More than once someone has used a particular adjective-noun pair (and less commonly an adverb-adjective pair) that struck me as ... [/nq] Well, it's quite a list I wonder how long it took to accumulate these? ).

  • [nq:1]More than once someone has used a particular adjective-noun pair (and less commonly an adverb-adjective pair) that struck me as ...
  • [/nq] Well, it's quite a list I wonder how long it took to accumulate these?
  • ).
  • Just looking at a couple: [nq:1]strikingly beautiful (striking beauty)[/nq] There are various words like striking, stunning, knockout, that relate the strong impact (contact, again) a beautiful person or thing has on us.
  • It's hard for me to say if that is a literal use or not.
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8 Answers
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[nq:1]More than once someone has used a particular adjective-noun pair (and less commonly an adverb-adjective pair) that struck me as ... few of what I think are the best examples here, and welcome any additions, explanations, comments or points of rebuttal.[/nq]
Well, it's quite a list I wonder how long it took to accumulate these? I think it would take a great deal of time to look up each on
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[nq:1]More than once someone has used a particular adjective-noun pair (and less commonly an adverb-adjective pair) that struck me as ... many cases, plenty of other adjectives would suffice to give the same intended meaning, but typically only one is used.[/nq]
Most of these are simply what used be known as
hackneyed phrases, or cliches. Second- and third-rate writers use them as a substi
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[nq:2]More than once someone has used a particular adjective-noun pair ... the same intended meaning, but typically only one is used.[/nq]
[nq:1]Most of these are simply what used be known as hackneyed phrases, or cliches. Second- and third-rate writers use them as a substitute for original thought.[/nq]
Oh, I don't know. Is it really all that more disgraceful to use an expression like "sh
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[nq:1]Well, it's quite a list I wonder how long it took to accumulate these?[/nq]
It's only part of a longer list that I've been adding to here and there for the last 12 months or so. Some of the examples fit better than others but I don't have a easy rule to apply to them just yet.
[nq:1]Just looking at a couple:[/nq]
[nq:2]strikingly beautiful (striking beauty)[/nq]
[nq:1]There a
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[nq:2]Most of these are simply what used be known as ... third-rate writers use them as a substitute for original thought.[/nq]
[nq:1]Oh, I don't know. Is it really all that more disgraceful to use an expression like "shining example" that happens ... built of English elements? Just cuz one is called "one word" and the other compound is called "a hackneyed phrase"?[/nq]
That last is an exa
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[nq:2]Most of these are simply what used be known as ... third-rate writers use them as a substitute for original thought.[/nq]
[nq:1]Oh, I don't know. Is it really all that more disgraceful to use an expression like "shining example" that happens ... built of English elements? Just cuz one is called "one word" and the other compound is called "a hackneyed phrase"?[/nq]
I didn't use the wo
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[nq:1]First-rate writers don't do it. When is a suspicion "sneaking", and why, and why can't it be something else? The ... really doing something in the sentence, or is it just there because it fell out of the air that way?[/nq]
I have a tiptoeing suspicion that your post is an effulgent example of verbal snobbery.
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[nq:1]That last is an example of itself. Also, 'cliche' is a hackneyed metaphor.[/nq]
How stereotypical!

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full

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