[Ads-l] Euphemism?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Good question, but there's no telling.

"Smartypants" is older in print. But so what?

Not in OED is a 1937 appearance of "smartarse" (n.) that I noted from
Wilkes's _Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms_.

Unfortunately I didn't copy the quote itself.

JL





JL

JL

On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 4:16 PM Parish, James <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:

> It occurred to me today to wonder whether "smartypants" is just a
> euphemized version of "smartass". Is there any data for or against?
>
> Jim Parish
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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