Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Questions & Answers about Words    What kind of deal is this?
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
What kind of deal is this? Login/Join
 
Member
Picture of shufitz
posted
The radio has been airing an annoying ad-jingle that puns on the word deal.
    When you buy a used car
    From your new-car store,
    You get a great deal,
    And a great deal more.
The deal in line 3 has the familiar meaning of "a bargain", but the deal in the last line means "an amount".

We never see the word in the latter sense, except in the phrase "a great deal" of this or that, meaning "a lot". You might say that you've made "a great deal of progress," but you'd never say that you maded "a large deal of progress" or "a small deal of progress."

This sense of the word "deal" [= an amount] has become obsolete, except in the phrase "a great deal".

Was it ever used more generally? Have you ever heard it so used?
 
Posts: 2666 | Location: Chicago, IL USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
That's not a big deal?
 
Posts: 371Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<Asa Lovejoy>
posted
I still hear the phrase, "...no big deal."
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
You've all given me a good deal of grief.
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I also hear the phrase "It was a deal of trouble", which I had heretofore assumed derived from the dealing of cards.
 
Posts: 371Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
Can't we deal with this later?
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of zmježd
posted Hide Post
English deal < Old English dǣlan 'to divide, share' < PIE *dail- 'to divide' (link) :- related words German teilen 'to divide', Urteil 'judgment', English ordeal.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
Posts: 5148 | Location: R'lyehReply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Questions & Answers about Words    What kind of deal is this?

Copyright © 2002-12