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A Civil War personage expresses her wish to build a 'serious' cathedral, meaning that it should be something large, significant, impressive. That's Gore Vidal book, "Lincoln."
That use of 'serious' strikes me as too glib for the person of high society, and anyway too modern for that era. It could be that I am too conditioned to associate that meaning of 'impressive' to the glib uses that are all too pervasive: serious set of wheels, serious pair of boobs, serious dough.
Does 'serious' always have a normal-register meaning of 'impressive' - nothing glib or slangy about it?
Another possiblity: that meaning was proper at one time (Civil War) , then became archaic.
Straighten me out.
From the online OxED:
3. c. Substantial, considerable, or impressive in quantity or extent; great, large, abundant. In later use sometimes colloq. or humorous.
1810 G. Crabbe Borough xiii. 180 Serious Sums in private Pleasures spent.
1835 A. Alison Hist. Europe IV. xxx. 336 The light infantry of the enemy, which was..making serious progress.
1843 Artizan June 127/2 An engine of serious size.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 11 Sept. 1/2 All vessels of serious tonnage must lie at the anchorage, about twelve miles by river from the city.
1908 J. J. Hissey Eng. Holiday with Car & Camera xvi. 298 Some ten miles away, not a serious distance on a car.
1941 K. A. Porter Let. 23 Jan. (1990) iv. 191, I shall really have my first serious money on my contracts.
1982 S. Brett Murder Unprompted (1984) ii. 11 This relentless rehearsal made serious inroads into his drinking time.
1994 D. F. Wallace Supposedly Fun Thing I'll never do Again (1997) 93 Cows have some serious nostrils going on, gaping and wet and pink or black.
2005 Independent 24 Sept. (Mag.) 64/2 The basic brief..was to plant and produce a serious amount of fruit and veg.
Several of the quotes are from before the Civil War.
Leonard Cohen would seem to argue that the opposite of serious is not humorous, but joyous. Of course, he argued that in a humorous song...
Nothing's happened in a million years
I've been sitting here since Wednesday morning
Wednesday morning can't believe my ears
Jazz police are looking through my folders
Jazz police are talking to my niece
Jazz police have got their final orders
Jazzer, drop your axe, it's Jazz police!
Jesus taken serious by the many
Jesus taken joyous by a few
Jazz police are paid by J. Paul Getty
Jazzers paid by J. Paul Getty II
Jazz police I hear you calling
Jazz police I feel so blue
Jazz police I think I'm falling,
I'm falling for you
Wild as any freedom loving racist
I applaud the actions of the chief
Tell me now oh beautiful and spacious
Am I in trouble with the Jazz police?
Jazz police are looking through my folders ...
They will never understand our culture
They'll never understand, the Jazz police
Jazz police are working for my mother
Blood is thicker margarine than grease
Let me be somebody I admire
Let me be that muscle down the street
Stick another turtle on the fire
Guys like me are mad for turtle meat
Jazz police I hear you calling
Jazz police I feel so blue
Jazz police I think I'm falling,
I'm falling for you
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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