that fool of a husband

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Jackson6612

#484367 Mon, 03 Mar 08 10:03 AM

¹of
8 a—used as a function word to indicate a particular example belonging to the class denoted by the preceding noun <the city of Rome> b—used as a function word to indicate apposition <that fool of a husband>
[M-W's Col. Dic.]

I couldn't see any apposition in ''that fool of a husband''. Are ''that'' and ''fool'' in apposite relation to each other?

Jackson6612

Joined on Wed, Dec 27 2006

Senior Member (3,132)

NOTE: When you reply to my post, please look for mistakes in grammar, syntax or punctuation, and let me know of any suggestions you have. Thank you.

Nouns

Marius Hancu

#484375 Mon, 03 Mar 08 10:12 AM

The fool and the husband are in apposition. You could equally say:

That fool committed a murder.

The husband commited a crime.

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Cool Breeze

#484378 Mon, 03 Mar 08 10:14 AM

Hi Jackson

No, that isn't a noun. Fool and husband are nouns and thus husband is "a particular example" of a fool - to use the wording of your dictionary. Smile Learning things like this is of little avail in your language acquisition efforts, though.

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,962)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Nouns

Jackson6612

#484761 Tue, 04 Mar 08 10:32 AM

Now I could not understand the meaning of ''fool of a husband''. Please help me.

Jackson6612

Marius Hancu

#484779 Tue, 04 Mar 08 11:23 AM

he's a fool husband, he's a husband who is also a fool

Marius Hancu

Jackson6612

#484853 Tue, 04 Mar 08 02:28 PM

What does ''of'' stand for in that expression?

Jackson6612

Expressions

Marius Hancu

#484921 Tue, 04 Mar 08 05:00 PM

belonging

he's a fool which belongs to the set/crowd of husbands

he's a fool which belongs in the husbands' set/crowd

Marius Hancu

Kooyeen

#484968 Tue, 04 Mar 08 06:36 PM

Hi,
it's just an idiom used to say "that husband who is a fool". But I think there's something interesting about this idiom, which I am not sure about.

1) Additional particles go before the first noun:
I saw your idiot of a sister. I saw that idiot of a sister of yours.
NOT: I saw the idiot of your sister / I saw that idiot of your sister

2) This idiom is not used in the plural:
I saw your idiots of parents. (?)
I like her idiots of brothers. (?)

To find out if I'm right or not, I'm afraid we need a native speaker. Smile

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (4,045)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

Articles, Plurals, Nouns, Idioms

CalifJim

#484975 Tue, 04 Mar 08 06:57 PM

The dictionary definition is simply calling attention to a certain grammatical construction in which you can say that Y is an X (The husband is a fool.) as a subordinate thought within a bigger sentence by using the structure X of a Y. (that fool of a husband). X and Y are the terms in apposition.

a prince of a man, a fool of a husband, a devil of a problem say the man is a prince (prince-like), the husband is a fool, the problem is a devil (very difficult). And this kind of expression in used within a larger sentence, thus:

Her grandfather is a prince of a man.

That fool of a husband has gambled away his paycheck again.

If we do that, we'll have a devil of a problem with the employees.

The structure itself is not very productive in English. That is, they are fairly fixed idiomatic expressions, and it's probably best just to remember them when you encounter them. I wouldn't recommend trying to make up new ones.

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,566)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Constructions, Expressions

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