Date:    Thu, 9 Apr 1998 15:20:01 -0400
<br>From:    Larry Horn <laurence.horn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: flat
<br>
<br>At 11:50 AM -0700 4/9/98, Peter Richardson wrote:
<br>>This morning on NPR there was an interview with a survivor of that
<br>>horrible tornado that killed so many in Alabama. Her statement included:
<br>>"...a lotta people who are gonna flat need prayer..."
<br>>
<br>>I'm wondering about the distribution of _flat_ as an intensifier, since it
<br>>appears not to be in DARE. The RHHDAS lists it as an adverb, as in "I'm
<br>>flat broke"--something I heard growing up in Illinois. But this
<br>>intensifying function seems rarer. Any ideas?
<br>>
<br>>Peter
<br>
<br>There's also the related (I assume) "flat-out".  I've heard "he can flat
<br>out play", "he flat-out blew the call", and "he's a flat-out superstar", or
<br>their equivalents in sportscasterese, and I'm sure it would turn up all
<br>over the place on Nexis.  The first "flat" above does sound like a
<br>regionalism to me, though.  (And I wonder about the
<br>distribution--collocational, not geographic--of the intensifying "flat" of
<br>"flat broke".  I can imagine "flat-out brilliant", but not "flat
<br>brilliant", in my own idiolect.)  The OED does have "flat broke" as a
<br>specific Americanism dating back at least to Bartlett's 1859 Dictionary,
<br>but then it also has the interesting 1601 cite "I am flat of your mind"
<br>under the heading of adverbial FLAT = 'absolutely, downright, fully'.  And
<br>then there's the related postposed "flat" = 'exactly' (three minutes flat)
<br>or 'completely' (turned me down flat).   They all seem to suggest something
<br>like 'no two ways about it.'
<br>
<br>Larry
<br>