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#1 2022-08-12 05:19:02

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

being all over someone

A phrase (clause) like

We were all over her

can bear at least three strikingly different meanings, for me. The first two work with a singular subject too, but the third does not.
.
1. We swarmed her. This seems a bit more likely to be positive swarming, an expression of enthusiasm, but I could use it for attacking as well.
.
2. We had completely lost all enthusiasm for her. Previously we had been her fans, now we are at best indifferent to her.
.
3. All of us were her superiors, higher in rank than she was.
.
Isn’t that bizarre?
.
Do y’all do the same across the pond?

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2022-08-12 05:31:20)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#2 2022-08-13 05:04:08

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1258

Re: being all over someone

Pretty much. I found myself declaiming and intoning like some demented thespian in search of secret hinges within the tiny phrase, but still know no more than I did before. Bizarre will do nicely.

1. Same, but the excessive admiration seems closer to violation perhaps.

2. Same, but likelier expressed as ‘We’d all got over her’.

3. Same, but again likelier expressed as “All of us were over her’.

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