SPLASH or SLASH? [brass tacks]

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Fri Nov 23 18:14:57 UTC 2007


On Nov 22, 2007, at 1:55 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> On Nov 22, 2007 2:44 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu
> > wrote:
>>
>> Nothing that early has been found in the UK, which casts the
>> rhyming-slang origin in serious doubt.
>
> Hmm, some sort of idiom blend?
>
> "cast doubt on X" + "put/place X in doubt" -> "cast X in doubt"

it sounded perfectly ordinary to me, but then i googled, and {"cast *
in doubt"} is *tiny* vs. {"put * in doubt"} and {"place * in doubt"}.

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list