I heard someone on the other side of the gas pump:
“Lot of rigmarole just to get fuel anymore.”I don’t know if he was complaining (about the ATM-like keypad) to himself or to someone on a phone. What I do know is that I was hearing an instance of positive anymore.
[I was slightly surprised to hear the standard form rigmarole and not rigamarole, which is the way I’ve known the word since childhood.]
Your mention of “rigmarole” after an Anna Karenina post reminded me that Anthony Briggs’ translation of War and Peace includes “pernickety,” which I had to look up. Growing up where I did, I always put the A in “rigamarole” and the S in “persnickety.”
ReplyDeleteNot since I (only recently) learned that it's acceptable to use biannual to mean twice per year have I found something as confusing as the positive anymore. Having lived my entire life in New England it's no surprise I've never heard it.
ReplyDeleteStefan, I wonder if rigamarole is a recognized instance of epenthesis. That’s a rabbit hole for another day. I think persnickety in Tolstoy would make me laugh out loud. There’s a funny “let’s don’t” in AK that I should have marked.
ReplyDeleteJoe, yes, biannual Is confounding. But the first time I heard positive anymore I was totally addled. I had to look it up to find out what I was hearing. ( Later, not during the conversation!)
Funny, I just reread my comment from your 2015 post. I was having the same thought as I read this post - which is that this use, with positive anymore at the end of the sentence is the way I would use it. I wouldn't use it at the beginning of a sentence, as in the examples you gave in the previous post. So I'm a partial positive anymore user. And I do have Scottish and Irish heritage...
ReplyDeleteUse it proudly anymore. : )
ReplyDeleteGrammar in the wild! Love it.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes feel like I have a Geiger counter. : )
ReplyDelete