Thanks, Jonathan…fascinating as always. “Wax” is an odd one: it’s one of the verbs (meaning “become”) which takes an adjective complement, along the same lines as “go crazy”, “turn nasty”, “get mad with” and so on. But in this case the range of adjectives is very narrow. The one you mention, “wax lyrical”, is by far the most frequent verb+adjective combination – almost a cliché. But there are a few other fairly common ones, all in similar semantic territory, including: eloquent, poetic, nostalgic, and philosophical. The one other regular combination is “wax indignant”, which may link back to the 17th century King James Bible, where the God of the Old Testament was frequently angry, and there are numerous sentences like this one from the Book of Exodus: “And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people?”.
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Thanks, Jonathan…fascinating as always. “Wax” is an odd one: it’s one of the verbs (meaning “become”) which takes an adjective complement, along the same lines as “go crazy”, “turn nasty”, “get mad with” and so on. But in this case the range of adjectives is very narrow. The one you mention, “wax lyrical”, is by far the most frequent verb+adjective combination – almost a cliché. But there are a few other fairly common ones, all in similar semantic territory, including: eloquent, poetic, nostalgic, and philosophical. The one other regular combination is “wax indignant”, which may link back to the 17th century King James Bible, where the God of the Old Testament was frequently angry, and there are numerous sentences like this one from the Book of Exodus: “And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people?”.