🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov20.165547.26076@leland.Stanford.EDU>, alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson) writes:
> In article <1992Nov19.215659.4152@memstvx1.memst.edu>, connolly@memstvx1 writes:
>>There are some fossilized expressions of this sort in English:
>>
>>	knight errant
>>	durance vile
>>	Chicken Little
>>
>>But these examples are true fossils; other nouns and adjectives cannot
>>be substituted, and the adjective cannot be compared.  In other words,
>>there is no _*knight peripatetic_ or _*musician errant_, and certainly
>>no _*durance vilest_.  _Proper_ is unusual, perhaps unique, in that it
>>is only postpositive in this usage and can be used after many other nouns
>>than _city_.  But even _proper_ cannot then be compared (_*city most
>>proper_).
>>
>>--Leo Connolly
> 
> There is, on the other hand, _durance most vile_.

Gee, I missed that one!  Or did I?  Maybe not.  The darned thing lacks
a determiner, without which there is no superlative meaning.  Now _most_
is used for other things than to form suppletive superlatives. Perhaps
it is.  What do you lurkers think?

--Leo Connolly