# Pussy Galore **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492 "2005-04-21T22:32:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/1 "2005-04-21T22:32:50Z")
Is there a word in English for modifiers such as “galore” which follow the word they modify rather than precede it? And what other such modifiers exist in English? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/2 "2005-04-21T22:43:21Z")
Another one: aplenty, as in, oh, um, say “noodles aplenty”. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) just calls them adjectives. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/3 "2005-04-21T22:52:14Z")
_Ago_ is another such modifier, which can function either as an adjective or adverb. I’m afraid I don’t know what these words are called, if they have their own special name. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/4 "2005-04-21T22:54:08Z")
Modifiers appearing after the words they modify are too common to list. It is a simple structure. You can find trash everywhere. Wasn’t that song terrible? She looked at me with her eyes half closed. And on and on… ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/5 "2005-04-21T23:54:07Z")
I would think that “galore” is an adjective (though originally a phrase coming from Irish _go leór_, “enough”) that follows the noun. Such things exist in English, but not commonly; one example is the “general” in “surgeon general” or “attorney general.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/6 "2005-04-22T01:03:15Z")
The thing that makes “galore” different from other adjectives is that you _only_ hear it _after_ the noun. I don’t think I’ve ever heard, say, “galore soda pop”. The examples given by **daffyduck** can all be rearranged to place the adjective in front of the noun and still make perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/7 "2005-04-22T02:30:18Z")
> [@](#): > > The thing that makes “galore” different from other adjectives is that you only hear it after the noun. That’s because that’s the way it’s put in the Gaelic languages. In Manx (which I know much better than Irish) the phrase is _dy liooar_. To say “enough time” (or “time enough” 😉 ) you’d say _traa dy liooar_. It’s the same reason why we say “attorneys general” and not “general attorneys.” There’s also “the body electric.” ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/8 "2005-04-22T02:34:34Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > That’s because that’s the way it’s put in the Gaelic languages. In Manx (which I know much better than Irish) the phrase is _dy liooar_. To say “enough time” (or “time enough” 😉 ) you’d say _traa dy liooar_. > > It’s the same reason why we say “attorneys general” and not “general attorneys.” > > There’s also “the body electric.” Interesting that “enough” works either way. I hear people say “There’ll be enough time for that when we get back” as well as “There’ll be time enough for that when we get back”. ---
**Author:** ![wnorthr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@wnorthr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wnorthr)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/9 "2005-04-22T02:36:32Z")
“outdawazoo” ? No? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/10 "2005-04-22T03:02:04Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > _Ago_ is another such modifier, which can function either as an adjective or adverb. Um, what are you referring to here when you say it can be an adjective? Are you referring to constructions such as “a year ago”? But it’s not the year that’s ago, it’s whatever the event is. “A year” says how _far_ ago – _it_ modifies “ago,” not the other way around. It’s like “six feet tall.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/11 "2005-04-22T12:34:07Z")
Captains Courageous ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/12 "2005-04-22T16:06:44Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > Um, what are you referring to here when you say it can be an adjective? _Ago_ is classified as both adjective and adverb in [Merriam-Webster](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=ago&x=15&y=15), [the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language](http://www.bartleby.com/61/53/A0145300.html) (4th edition, 2000), and [Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary](http://www.dictionary.net/ago) (1913 edition). [WordNet](http://wordnet.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=ago) also classifies it that way, though I don’t think their word information is independently acquired. WordNet’s entry for _ago_ as adjective is simply: _gone by; or in the past; “two years ago”._ Unfortunately that example is a measly sentence fragment, and the other dictionaries mentioned aren’t very helpful here either. Perhaps a full example would be, “This oil lamp is a relic from a time long ago”, where _long_ and _ago_ are adjectives modifying the noun _time_. I’m prepared to be corrected though. And then on the other hand, the [Compact OED](http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/ago?view=uk) and the [Cambridge Dictionary of American English](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=ago*1+0&dict=A) describe _ago_ as an adverb only. So who can you trust, really? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/13 "2005-04-22T17:18:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Modifiers appearing after the words they modify are too common to list. It is a simple structure. > You can find trash everywhere. Wasn’t that song terrible? She looked at me with her eyes half closed. And on and on… Not that common to find adjectives directly following and attached to the noun. In the first sentence, ‘everywhere’ is an adverb modifying ‘find’ (and we all agree adverbs can and do bounce all around the sentence). In the second sentence, this is just an inversion of ‘the song was terrible’, where the adjective follows a form of ‘to be’. The adjective only ends up next to the noun by accident because of the order of the rest of the sentence. In the third sentence, I think ‘half closed’ is functioning as an adverb, although this is an interesting case. Hmm, what about ‘He painted the door blue’ ? It seems ‘blue’ is functioning more like an adverb than an adjective. Linguists, is there a name for this role? ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/14 "2005-04-22T17:21:12Z")
Hi, me again. A little Googling turned up some more examples of these only-after-the-word modifiers: [ul] [li] **flat** , meaning _exactly_ — We managed to reach the station in five minutes flat.[/li][li] **alike** — She received hundreds of letters of support from friends and strangers alike.[/li][li] **elect** , meaning recently elected but not yet holding office — The president elect will soon be making his victory speech. (Often a hyphenated suffix however, so perhaps disqualified.)[/li][li] **aplenty** — We’ll have fireworks aplenty at the Chinese New Year celebration.[/li][/ul] My favorite such modifier that churned up was actually _flambé_, but since it’s a French import, that might be cheating. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of borrowings like that from French: _du jour_, _par excellence_, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/15 "2005-04-22T17:25:46Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Hmm, what about ‘He painted the door blue’ ? It seems ‘blue’ is functioning more like an adverb than an adjective. Linguists, is there a name for this role? I’m not a linguist, but that’s apparently called a [resultative adjective](http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/resultative-adjective.html). ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/16 "2005-04-22T17:50:56Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > Perhaps a full example would be, “This oil lamp is a relic from a time long ago”, where _long_ and _ago_ are adjectives modifying the noun _time_. I’m prepared to be corrected though. Oh yes… quite so. I’d forgotten about that usage (although I would probably have said “from a time long gone.” ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/17 "2005-04-22T18:35:47Z")
Court martial. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/18 "2005-04-22T18:54:46Z")
Oh yes, there are a good number of set phrases (mostly legal and administrative) borrowed from French that preserve the French order. The only one I can think of that is productive is _general_: _governor general, solicitor general, postmaster general, surgeon general, director general, secretary general, …_ ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/19 "2005-04-22T22:53:59Z")
> [@Ronald C. Semone](#): > > And what other such modifiers exist in English? Akimbo is another. It’s always “arms akimbo,” not “akimbo arms.” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492/20 "2005-04-22T22:59:21Z")
> [@11811](#): > > Akimbo is another. It’s always “arms akimbo,” not “akimbo arms.” Hey, I once stayed at the Akimbo Arms. The service was terrible. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/300492.md?page=2)