Kaverznyi vopros: $64,000

[Wayles Browne]

Tim can be right and Apresyan can be right too. The original 
game-show was on the radio in the 1940's, "Take it or Leave it", and 
had a $64 question. Then TV came along and, with it, inflation of the 
prize amounts, and there was indeed a show called "The 64 thousand 
dollar question".
See http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/wftwarch.pl?060705 (the site of the 
Merriam-Webster Company, which publishes dictionaries).

At 10:33 -0400 4/13/06, Timothy Sergay wrote:
>Oops! It's of course sixty-four THOUSAND dollar question (thank you, 
>Alina). Apresyan had it wrong, too, and I copied it without 
>reflecting on it. The title of a TV game show in which this amount 
>was the stake, I believe. The sense is, though, a bit deflected from 
>what it seems you're after. "That's the $64,000 question" means 
>"that's the issue on which everything hinges [depends]," in other 
>words, if we only knew the answer to THAT question, everything else 
>would be clear [simple to accomplish].
>
>On Apr 13, 2006, at 10:17 AM, Timothy Sergay wrote:
>
>>A "trick question" can be a deliberate trap ("proval'nyi vopros," 
>>"vopros na zasypku"), but "tricky question" is different, and might 
>>help.  Apresyan also lists "sinuous question" (maybe I just haven't 
>>encountered this before) and also "sixty-four dollar question."
>>
>>Tim

-- 

Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

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