main - intensifying adverb?
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- Grand Panjandrum
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main - intensifying adverb?
This is what I've found in the same Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
'The man at Maw's was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me like so much dirt,' returned Poole.
Is main similar to very or other intensifying adverbs here? I've never seen this use of main. Is it chiefly dialectal or anything like that? Is it an old form of a flat adverb?
Brazilian dude
'The man at Maw's was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me like so much dirt,' returned Poole.
Is main similar to very or other intensifying adverbs here? I've never seen this use of main. Is it chiefly dialectal or anything like that? Is it an old form of a flat adverb?
Brazilian dude
Languages rule!
It's got to be used here as an adverb, but it does have a meaning as an adjective that I only felt from context here:
main
The adverb "mainly" (mostly) would not mean "exerted to the utmost."
I think that the closest would be "utterly angry."
"as angry as angry can get"
Apo
main
It is like "sore afraid."Exerted to the utmost; sheer: "by main strength."
The adverb "mainly" (mostly) would not mean "exerted to the utmost."
I think that the closest would be "utterly angry."
"as angry as angry can get"
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
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- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
BD:
He war powerful angry!
BD:
BD:
main
Apo
Yes, unless you think utterly or extremely are not!Is "main" similar to very or other intensifying adverbs here?
He war powerful angry!
BD:
Since I have never heard it, and since it comes from a book written in antiquated language, I would assume that it was or is dialectal.Is it chiefly dialectal or anything like that?
BD:
It is the only form of a old flat adverb! But I really think that it is adjective used as a adverb, like "powerful angry" or "dead serious." Probably spoken by a trusted servant of kitchen or grounds duties.Is it an old form of a flat adverb?
main
OK?main (adj.)
c.1205, "large, bulky, strong," from O.E. mægen- "power, strength, force," used in compounds (see main (n.)), probably infl. by O.N. megenn (adj.) "strong, powerful." Sense of "chief" is c.1400.
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Lexiterian
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People who watch too much North-American telly tend towards a state of moral purity. Let me give you an example:
Garzo: How are you?
Square-eyes: I am good.
Garzo: Do you mean that you are in a state of moral purity?
Square-eyes: No, I mean that I am well; I've just been watching too much North-American telly.
Well, I don't actually have conversations like that, but I hope to one day. It is evidence of the blurred edges between these things called adverbs and adjectives.
The difficulty is with adjective/adverb pairs that have different meanings. This is often the case with instensifiers: their standard adverb form often has the meaning 'for the most part'. Thus, we have the difference between main angry and mainly angry. In modern standard English we tend to avoid these little problems: we don't use these adjective forms adverbally. However, this form is common in many dialects of colloquial English. Of course main is rather archaic in this usage, but other words are not. She'll be right busy come lambing would not sound strange around these parts.
-- Garzoly.
Garzo: How are you?
Square-eyes: I am good.
Garzo: Do you mean that you are in a state of moral purity?
Square-eyes: No, I mean that I am well; I've just been watching too much North-American telly.
Well, I don't actually have conversations like that, but I hope to one day. It is evidence of the blurred edges between these things called adverbs and adjectives.
The difficulty is with adjective/adverb pairs that have different meanings. This is often the case with instensifiers: their standard adverb form often has the meaning 'for the most part'. Thus, we have the difference between main angry and mainly angry. In modern standard English we tend to avoid these little problems: we don't use these adjective forms adverbally. However, this form is common in many dialects of colloquial English. Of course main is rather archaic in this usage, but other words are not. She'll be right busy come lambing would not sound strange around these parts.
-- Garzoly.
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost
A more likely conversation would be:
Garzo:How are you?
Square-eyes: I am good.
Garzo: Do you mean that you are in a state of moral purity?
Square-eyes: Huh???
Why "Square-eyes" by the way?
Garzo:How are you?
Square-eyes: I am good.
Garzo: Do you mean that you are in a state of moral purity?
Square-eyes: Huh???
Why "Square-eyes" by the way?
Spaceman Spiff
"The capacity for humankind to centralize its importance in the grand scheme of things is quite impressive."
- Tim Ward
"The capacity for humankind to centralize its importance in the grand scheme of things is quite impressive."
- Tim Ward
parallelogramsSquare
* A square is a parallelogram with four right angles and four congruent sides.
* A square is both a rectangle and a rhombus and inherits all of their properties.
So a square is a parallelogram, and a rhombus, and a rectangle. Those squares really know how to fit in.
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
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