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I read this sentence in a book review. I can understand the sentence but, I am confused by the globe over.

Human history? Global economy? Her evidence for women the globe over consists of thin, small facts cherry-picked to support outsize claims.

  • What part of speech is "the global over" in the above sentence and what does it mean?
  • How about cherry-picked?
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  • You should limit each question to only one phrase/question.
    – Luke_0
    Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 1:26
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    Consult [this] to see what you need to include in questions of this sort. But "the globe over" is tricky: it's a faintly pretentious way of saying "over the globe", which is itself a faintly pretentious way of saying "around the world". Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 1:41
  • "Outsize" is also a problem: one of those illiteracies that passes for normal (it should be "outsized" to be a real past participial adjective). Consider "Success for Downsized Workers?" (title of a PDF on the Net) and "Success for Downsize Workers?". Eventually, "cherry-picked" will turn into the faux adjective "cherrypick", as in "small, cherrypick facts that support outsize claims". Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions. Albert Einstein (1953)
    – user21497
    Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 3:09
  • Related: More about cherry-picking can be found HERE
    – J.R.
    Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 9:03

1 Answer 1

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The phrase the globe over is merely an inversion of an adjectival prepositional phrase over the globe modifying women. The sense is over the [entire] globe.

Cherry-pick is a standard idiomatic verb phrase meaning

to choose or take the best or most profitable of (a number of things), esp for one's own benefit or gain cherry-pick the best routes.

Cherry-picked is the past participle used as an adjective here.

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