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Fri 6 Apr, 2012 07:54 am
In Nanaimo, there were enviable men like Mr. Wong, and then there was most everybody else. Chan Sam watched Nanaimo begin to empty of unemployed men like himself.
The sentences are from the book The Concubine's Children by Denise Chong.
What does "and then there was most everybody else"mean? Does it mean that everybody else is like Chan Sam who is just ordinary unemployed people?
in American southern dialect, "most" used in this way means "almost", I think.
@contrex,
I've never heard that the meaning of 'most' means something different to those folks.
I can't see why they would limit themselves by making
most everyone else mean
almost everyone else when they could use
most everyone else to mean
most everyone else and
almost everyone else to mean
almost everyone else.
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