MSGID: 1:153/716.0 6f607405   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 66d187fe   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Anton!  Recently you wrote in a message to Dallas Hinton:   
      
   DH>  I've never seen the word used as an adjective. I suspect   
   DH>  it's an archaic usage. The Cambridge dictionary doesn't   
   DH>  define it as an adjective (listing only "cowardly"),   
   DH>  same for Merriam-Webster, Collins, and the Britannica   
   DH>  Dictionary. The Oxford dictionary shows it used an   
   DH>  adjective but last used in 1818!   
      
   AS>  1913 Webster lists `coward' as an adjective:   
      
   AS>     
      
      
             My 1983 GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY also lists it as an adjective, but   
   in my experience this usage was rare at the time of publication....  :-)   
      
      
      
   AS>  I think `coward' /can/ be an adjective by virtue of the   
   AS>  ability of nouns in English to become adjectives in certain   
   AS>  cirsumstances, such as:   
      
   AS>       systems (vs. systematic) programming   
   AS>       fall guy   
   AS>       finger man   
   AS>       glass (not glassy) jar.   
      
      
                     or   
      
             gravel road   
             pine cone   
             sob sister   
             spider vein   
      
             ... AKA noun adjectives or attributive nouns.  :-)   
      
      
      
   AS>  that said, `coward' is no more an ajective than `widow' in   
   AS>  the famous tautology `widow woman'.   
      
             I ran across "widow woman" as an example of tautology as well.  But   
   in this case "woman" is redundant because a widow is by definition female, and   
   if a male finds himself in a similar position he is a widower where I come   
   from.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)   
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