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Discussion Groups / English Usage / October 2009Ishiguro: any old afternoon
Hello: I'm surprised with "old" here. Is it basically the same as "odd?" ---- [The students use some accumulated tokens to buy poetry from other students, and that feels strange to the narrator] If we were so keen on a person's poetry, why didn't we just borrow it and copy it down ourselves any old afternoon? K. Ishiguro, Never let me go, p. 17 --- -- Thanks. Marius Hancu >I'm surprised with "old" here. Is it basically the same as "odd?" Similar. "Any old X" is more or less an emphatic form of "any X", with a subtext of "I really don't care at all". "Where should I sit?" "Take any old chair." "When should I turn up?" "Any old time."  SignatureRoger BW - BrE On Oct 29, 9:43 am, Roger Burton West <roger +aue200...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote: > >I'm surprised with "old" here. Is it basically the same as "odd?" > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > "When should I turn up?" "Any old time." Got it. Thank you very much. Marius Hancu >On Oct 29, 9:43 am, Roger Burton West <roger >+aue200...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >Got it. "Any old", as opposed to "any", emphasizes the fact that any date will do. SignatureRegards, Chuck Riggs, An American who lives near Dublin, Ireland and usually spells in BrE > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > K. Ishiguro, Never let me go, p. 17 > --- "any old" = "any randomly chosen"; "any old afternoon" = (approximately) "some afternoon" (it doesn't matter which one). SignatureRoland Hutchinson He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba," ... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy. --Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ ) |
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