Another Bushism

[Alice Faber]

Peter A. McGraw wrote:
>I keep wondering about another Bushism.  Dubya keeps vowing to "rout out"
>the terrorists.  I've interpreted this as a reinterpretation on his part of
>"root" into what for many American speakers is the homophonic "route,"
>which he then assigns his own pronunciation, namely the one that's
>homophonic with "rout."
>
>Is this idiolectal, or is "rout out" a common Texas pronunciaton of "root
>out"?

I don't know about this as a fixed expression, but I was struck with
the metaphor of a wood router, a tool that carves or gouges out
excess stuff. It seems a lot more expressive than simply uprooting
terrorists, though the blend is equally nice, linguistically.
--
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963