The Intrusive 'Of'

One day last week was a red-letter day for me. I was reading in my local newspaper an article about the deal by which, in 1947, the Cleveland Indians bought Larry Doby’s contract from the Newark Eagles, making Doby the first African-American to play in the American League.  The price was a seemingly low $15,000. However, the article quoted a baseball historian, Jim Overmyer, as saying that relatively speaking, it wasn’t so low, because no other Black player fetched “that good [of] a price at that time.” The reason I was so excited was that the word “of” was in brackets.

In other words, in the interview, Overmyer had used the phrase “that good a price.” In the article the reporter added the word “of,” in brackets—meaning to correct the grammar, make the meaning clear, or both.

The intrusive 'of' is similiar to another use of 'of'

The construction in question is “[qualifier/intensifier] [adjective] of a [noun]”—“too big of a portion for me to eat,” “not that hard of a decision to make,” “not too good of a time,” and so on. It is traditionally and technically non-standard English, otherwise known as “wrong.” But I had observed it gaining popularity for some time, first in speech and then, more and more frequently, in print. I was fascinated by the newspaper example because it represented a milestone: the reporter felt it was so self-evident that the “of” was proper and good that he felt compelled to correct Overmyer’s (actually correct) sentence.

The prolific writer on grammar and style Bryan Garner coined a name for this  construction: “intrusive of.” It has a pretty long history. Presumably, it derives from a similar construction which is unimpeachable: “[noun/pronoun] of a [noun].” For example—“prince of a fellow,” “giant of a senator,” “not that that much of a problem,” and “enough of a delay.”

It began with 'considerable of'

In the United States (but not Great Britain), it all seems to have begun in the nineteenth century when “of” sneaked into phrases with one particular adjective: “considerable.” Mark Twain writes of the time a brick came through the window “and gave me considerable of a jolt in the back.” In his 1946 autobiography, William Allen White writes of someone who was...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips