Rubberneck

Aaron E. Drews aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK
Mon Sep 11 10:23:55 UTC 2000


Bob Haas wrote:
>
> Which goes to show that one not be in an auto to rubberneck.  I've always
> taken it to mean lawful, if undesired, looking on by passersby or
> tourist-types or simple, everyday variety loafers.  I suppose we've come to
> associate rubbernecking with cars because folks so seldom leave theirs
> anymore.

I agree.  I remember using it for students in high school who didn't
adequately prepare for a test and decided to "compare notes" with those
sitting around them.  The use of 'rubberneck' might have been an
extension of the vehicular version.

--Aaron


________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics

Bide lang an fa fair
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: aaron.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 374 bytes
Desc: Card for Aaron E. Drews
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/20000911/886dc48d/attachment-0001.vcf>


More information about the Ads-l mailing list