It won't fly

Seán Fitzpatrick grendel.jjf at VERIZON.NET
Fri Nov 10 21:04:16 UTC 2006


I just listened to an interview with Michael Wex about his  book, "Born to
Kvetch”.  He mentioned a Yiddish expression for “Don’t give me that bull”,
approximately “er niet gestoygen und niet gefloygen”, literally, “he didn’t
rise and he didn’t fly”.  The references, for the in group, are to Jesus’
Crucifixion/Resurrection and Ascension.  

Does this Yiddish expression have any relation to the English “It won’t
fly”, where “it” is a proposal that is unworkable or a proposition that
won’t be believed?

 

Seán Fitzpatrick
No oil for pacifists!
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/

 

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