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Example sentence:

"As the concert ended, the atmosphere was all but ecstatic."

Replace words with synonyms:

  • all = everything
  • but = except

The sentence would appear:

"...the atmosphere was everything except ecstatic."

Meaning, "the concert was not ecstatic". It was all feelings except ecstatic.

I regularly hear similar sentences used in the way where "all but" means the exact opposite of my interpretation. The last straw of "curiosity : need-to-know" ratio broke when I heard it used in Band of Brothers--which very clearly implied the use of "all but" as a similar meaning to "very".

There's undoubtedly a hole in my logic.

Edit:

Band of Brothers quote: "He was just one more casualty in a war that was supposed to be all but over."

rick6
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  • I like this question. The particular phrase bugs me because I think exactly as you put it. I think the interpretation is akin to "almost, but not quite" or "just short of the hyperbole it could be". – SrJoven Sep 03 '14 at 18:04
  • Possibly answered by “All but” idiom has two meanings? – John Bartholomew Sep 03 '14 at 18:08
  • @JohnBartholomew agreed. Not an exact duplicate, but encompassed and answered by that question. – Patrick M Sep 03 '14 at 18:46
  • It would be very helpful if you could post links to the sentence you cite about the concert and to the Band of Brothers comment. Related to the concert, have you eliminted the possibility that the comment was being used in an ironic or sarcastic way? Also, is this an actual comment or just one you made up? Because I think if you could point to some real examples not made-up ones it would allow for much more accurate analysis. – Brillig Sep 03 '14 at 19:14
  • @Brillig Edited question with exact Band of Brothers quote. As for your other request, I can't think of one example in particular. It's an expression I hear regularly enough to take notice, so one particular example (outside of the added quote) doesn't stand out in my memory. – rick6 Sep 03 '14 at 19:26
  • I’d say your interpretation is quite accurate, except it needs a twist. When you say that the atmosphere was everything except ecstatic, you can interpret that two ways: 1) whatever you might call the atmosphere, it certainly wasn’t ecstatic—far from it; or 2) the atmosphere was perhaps not quite ecstatic, but it was certainly everything else you can think of in the spectrum that goes towards ecstatic. The second interpretation is what is intended when something is all but X. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 03 '14 at 19:32
  • @rick6 the first example you provided (that you made up) and the Band of Brothers comment are, in my opinion, completely opposite. The Band of Brothers comment works if you replace all but with your suggested synonyms everything except. "He was just one more casualty in a war that was supposed to be everything except over" works. They were being told the war was supposed to be practically over, but here was another casualty showing that what they were being told was not entirely true. Whereas "a war that was supposed to be not over" doesn't work for the BOB quotation. – Brillig Sep 03 '14 at 21:30

0 Answers0