Jeff suggests:
I’ve never heard of anyone giving birth to a full-grown adult except for in the Weekly World News. So let’s get rid of the “baby,” as in “She gave birth to a baby girl.”
Jeff suggests:
I’ve never heard of anyone giving birth to a full-grown adult except for in the Weekly World News. So let’s get rid of the “baby,” as in “She gave birth to a baby girl.”
Perhaps more strange is “she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy.” I can imagine the doctors and nurses scrambling around, trying to catch the bouncing baby boy as it bounds around the room like a power ball.
/pedant
In this context bouncing means an alert, happy, reactive and therefore healthy baby boy.
The alliteration and the rule of three make it euphonious.
There is a fine line between pointing out meaningless phrases and just being a literalist curmudgeon.
Do you also have a problem with “bouncy” when it describes a vivacious young woman?
/pedant
🙂