From NPR:
One problem we would have here is to calculate the damage because I believe the damage is incalculable and it's going to ripple into the future, because it will cost us convention business and people will be a little gun shy about coming back in here if they think this could happen again.
(Source)
I have two questions:
- What's the meaning of gun shy?
- come back in here is a little weird for me. I know a phrase is come here, so I think if I want to stress the orientation back, I can only add a word back before here, just as come back here (but still a little weird for me). So why does he add the word in before here? Can you give me more examples?
Best Answer
You can find a definition of gun-shy over at The Free Dictionary:
"Back" indicates that "come here" is to return to "here," and "in" implies that "here" is an enclosed location, or one with discrete borders (e.g., a town). Here's another example (of bad parenting) that I just made up: