In my neighborhood in Pawtucket, it’s common to run into your
neighbors on summer evenings. Lots of people eat dinner on their
porches, or go for walks up and down the streets, or drink wine in the
yard as the sun sets. My partner, Nate, and I like to walk. As we do,
children bound up to us and begin to chatter excitedly. They may show
us the praying mantis they caught in a jar, or the shells they
collected on the beach that day, or give us the details about the
birthday party down the street. We talk with their parents, talk about
nothing in particular, nothing too important, but we laugh often. As
the orange sun sets and the purple-grey twilight takes its place, it
is comforting, fortifying conversation.These simple, random interactions make me feel whole.
(Curt
Columbus, The Importance of Neighbors)I suspected that whole above may mean “full; complete” but the dictionary says this is only before noun. Is the whole “not broken or damaged”?
Answer
I disagree with the OALD’s tagging of the definition as “only before noun”. English grammar has a number of general rules (such as putting adjectives before nouns) that are frequently ignored for stylistic or historical reasons (“attorney general”).
In this case, whole does mean “complete”, with the suggestion that this is the way things ought to be, even if they often aren’t.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Listenever , Answer Author : chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-
