English Language & Usage Asked by Danny Schoemann on December 22, 2020
I was horrified to see our company create an ad that reads:
Don’t be too fool to use the hard drive"
However, Googling the expression "Don’t be too fool" seems to show that it’s a popular turn of phrase.
Is it English? And if so, what really does it mean?
Is it simply another way of saying "Don’t be a fool" or "Don’t be foolish"?
This is a broadened usage, and still, I'd say, non-standard. For the adjectival usage of fool, Macmillan adds three caveats:
fool {adjective} [only before noun] [American] [informal]
stupid or silly
- What’s that fool boy done now?
The predicative use, (as well as the graded use, as no example is supplied), is thus not sanctioned. Lexico and Cambridge Dictionary also carry the [only before noun] caveats. Though not given the explicit caveat by Merriam-Webster, only ungraded prenominal examples are given.
Answered by Edwin Ashworth on December 22, 2020
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