November 06, 2012, 19:25
<Proofreader>close race
All of the pubdits say the presidential election will be close but Republican talking heads have a new wrinkle. According to them, and it must be an official "talking point", the race is "razor-tight." I've heard of "razor-sharp" and "razor-thin" but what does "razor-tight" mean? Did someone mishear the last two and screw up their message? And why doesn't one of the repeaters simply go to what would normally be used instead of continuing to use this careless careless coinage?
November 06, 2012, 21:12
KallehI am not sure I've heard
razor tight, but I agree, it doesn't sound accurate. I think people are mixing up metaphors.
November 07, 2012, 21:20
KallehThat was very helpful, Tinman.
November 08, 2012, 00:40
BobHaleIt's a wordpress blog and therefore can't be read here in China. What does it say?
November 08, 2012, 00:53
arnieEssentially, he lists a series of examples where
razor is used. He then carries on:
quote:
All these examples have the noun razor used as an adverbial modifier of an adjective, with the specific understanding of razor arising from some property of razors that induces a corresponding scale for the adjective. Razors afford a tight or close shave, so razor with tight or close conveys great tightness or closeness. But we don’t find razor loose or razor stupid or razor silly or any number of other combinations we’d expect if razor could just be a positive degree adverbial like very, which is what the blend analysis would lead us to expect.
Combine that with the fact that the razor + Adj combinations that do occur are frequent and don’t strike people as errors, and the blend analysis has nothing to recommend it. On the other hand, semantic extensions of lexical items, especially via metaphors, are commonplace; razor tight looks like just another example of this familiar phenomenon.
November 08, 2012, 05:42
<Proofreader>I'll have to check with Language Log first before posting anything here again.