"Billy Ned"

[Mark Mandel]

My guess is 'hurts like the devil'. It brings to mind

   - Old Ned = the devil
   - an expression from CS Lewis's *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*,
   spoken by one of the children (Edmund?): [pulling off a scab] "hurts like
   billy-oh". The children often use what I've always taken to be English
   public-school slang from Lewis's day.


On Jan 29, 2008 7:56 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> At 1/29/2008 07:24 PM, Christine Ricks wrote:
> >My aunt used an expression that I wonder if anyone knows the meaning
> >of. She said "(something) hurt like a billy ned."  Any help would be
> >appreciated.
>
> Perhaps the audio from an NPR "All Things Considered" of Sept. 9,
> 2004, "Passing Sayings Along to a New Generation", will
> explain.  Google reveals text of "Who's Billy Ned? Some of these
> phrases came from his farming background, ... I still don't know who
> Billy Ned is, but I say it anyway 'cause, ...".  However, I don't
> find that text on the page, and I didn't try to listen.
>
> URL is www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3908786
>
> Joel
>
--
Mark Mandel

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