Dear Mr. Zimmer,
I greatly enjoyed your NYT piece today.
One thing that made me sit bolt upright, however, was that you treated "bolt upright" as a verb. This took me aback because I couldn't remember encountering the phrase as anything but an adverbial (He sat bolt upright), with "bolt" as a degree adverb modifying "upright." The OED gives citations of adverbial "bolt upright" dating back to Chaucer. The OED also cites “bolt upright” as a verb but calls it "obs[olete] or arc[haic]." The most recent citation was an 1815 quotation from Smollett: “The patient, bolting upright in the bed, collared each of these assistants with the grasp of Hercules.” Surprisingly there was also a citation for transitive “bolt upright”: “Tales ... That bolt like hedge-hog-quills the hair upright.”
I also Googled “to bolt upright” and did find modern instances, such as “At the first crack of spring, the world seems to bolt upright, as if waking from a dream.” Your own usage is further indication that verbal "bolt upright" may be archaic no longer.
Best wishes,
Dick Veit
Take a look at this article, about Google +1. What's in a verb?
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/07/31/1tastic/
Don Stewart
www.writeforcollege.com
www.writing123.com
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