> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Tristan
McLeay
> On 19.07.2008 03:54:32 Mark J. Reed wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Paul Bennett
> > <paul.w.bennett@...> wrote:
> > > Is it the mostly-archaic English word 'sore', meaning
> 'very' (cogn.
> > > Ger. 'sehr', i.a.)?
> >
> > I wouldn't say it's mostly archaic. The word is of course
common in
> > the sense of "painful", but even the "very" meaning is alive
and well
> > in many rural areas in the US. ("I'm sore tempted to hit
you upside
> > your head right now")
>
> I for my part have never once heard it meaning "very", and if
I'd heard
> it I would've assumed it was just a nonce or highly regional
and slangy
> use of an emotional term as an emphatic.
I'm not a Southerner but have lived here for over 8 years now.
There are some very interesting usages around, but I've never
heard that one.