rooves

[Benjamin Barrett]

Cadillac ran a commercial today, mentioning "sunrooves".

The only mention I find in the ADS archives on "rooves" is
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ADS-L&P=R4217&I=-3

"The phrase comes from the days when most roofs were thatch.  Now thatch
contains seeds, which means it attracts mice and rats who eat the
seeds.  To get the rhodents out of their rooves, people would turn their
cats and dogs loose on the roof.  When it rained, the felines and
canines were washed off the roof, hence the expression." - James A. Landau

(Note that this citation also includes the spelling "rhodents".)

Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

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