Another Bushism

[James Smith]

When someone gets clobbered or skunked, it's a rout!

My desk Webster's gives 'rout out' as 'to expel by
force'.  Other meanings of 'rout' include to drive
out, to defeat decisively.  Mr. Bush's usage seems
mundanely mainstream.



--- Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 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.
> --
>
 =============================================================================
> Alice Faber
>    faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories
>  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
> New Haven, CT 06511 USA
>        fax (203) 865-8963

=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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