Pedants' Paradise

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Verbs as nouns - "that's a big ask".

Oh! "Ask! Is that what people have been saying to me?!

I wish you'd posted this before I gave all that money to weightwatchers!

[french frank]

'A big ask' isn't just a verb being used as a noun: it's become a (popular?) cliché.

Ha! OED has a draft addition: "colloq. (orig. Austral.) (chiefly Sport). With modifying word or phrase, as a big (also huge, etc.) ask : something which is a lot to ask of someone; something difficult to achieve or surmount"

So an Australian sporting expression in origin

As to 'establish a tradition': that, to me, would imply more than the arrival of a single event - which might initiate a tradition. 'Establish' has the idea of 'setting up securely', doesn't it? In the case of a tradition, it can't be properly said to be established on its first appearance unless there is prior evidence of future repetitions. So, if you launch a festival intending it to be an annual event (and it becomes so), that would be establishing a tradition.

[kernelbogey]

A flask of wine, an OED... were paradise enow.

[gurnemanz]

'A big ask' isn't just a verb being used as a noun: it's become a (popular?) cliché.

Good point. It's a set phrase. No one refers to a "small ask".

[MrGongGong]

Good point. It's a set phrase. No one refers to a "small ask".

or even the frivolous fraud office ?

[Serial_Apologist]

or even the frivolous fraud office ?

A big ask refers to a request with overloaded expectations, I think. A small ask - I'm sure I've come across this expression: "It's only a small ask I'm making of you, dear". It would apply maybe to requests with little or no expectations of fulfilment. The sorts which I make of people all the time.

So - big ask, small ask - comes down to the same thing, really.

[gurnemanz]

I was wrong. There are people who refer to a "small ask:

http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/community/forums/thread/1513517

[Serial_Apologist]

I was wrong. There are people who refer to a "small ask:

http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/c...thread/1513517

[handsomefortune]

it's important to emphasise the letter 'k' on 'it's a big ask'! which media presenters don't always have time for, on progs like r4's 'toady'...

the media likes to adopt new words, especially around potentially contentious issues. to me, 'new build' doesn't refer to anything as permanent or solid as a 'home', instead it's something the three little pigs threw up...before running off with any spare mdf.

[Serial_Apologist]

the media likes to adopt new words, especially around potentially contentious issues. to me, 'new build' doesn't refer to anything as permanent or solid as a 'home', instead it's something the three little pigs threw up...before running off with any spare mdf.

The three little pigs who went to market? Or the three little pigs that stayed at home and shelfishly recycled the mdf?

[french frank]

I was wrong. There are people who refer to a "small ask:

I think that's a logical consequence, once the phrase passes into popular speech. It look as if it might have started out as a negative: 'no small ask', 'not a small ask' (= 'a big ask').

[amateur51]

or even the frivolous fraud office ?

[mangerton]

to me, 'new build' doesn't refer to anything as permanent or solid as a 'home', instead it's something the three little pigs threw up...before running off with any spare mdf.

To go off at a slight tangent, and in the interests of keeping this thread going, do builders build "homes"? Do they not rather build "houses", which the occupants then turn into homes?

[Richard Tarleton]

I think that's a logical consequence, once the phrase passes into popular speech. It look as if it might have started out as a negative: 'no small ask', 'not a small ask' (= 'a big ask').

Suzy Klein came up with "a huge ask" this afternoon when interviewing Milos Karadaglich on In Tune - how big can an ask get?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Suzy Klein came up with "a huge ask" this afternoon when interviewing Milos Karadaglich on In Tune - how big can an ask get?

As in "Does my ask look big in this?"