Whatever floats your boat (1981)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>Is thr ur-form really "whatever turns you on." Whatever tickles your
>>fancy" is surely older.

Certainly, and "whatever you please" is probably older still. I don't
perceive these as having EXACTLY the same applications as "whatever turns
you on" and "whatever floats your boat" which are completely
interchangeable in my experience (not necessarily representative of
course). Should it be stipulated that "whatever tickles your fancy" is
another exact equivalent, then one might ask further "Why the turn-on
version?" and the answer might be that it's more in line with modern, uh,
turns of phrase, e.g., "That turns me on" ... but "That floats my boat" is,
AFAIK, derivative and very recent.

As for the other alternatives (e.g., "whatever holds your socks up") I
believe all of them are MUCH less frequent than the boat-floating one.

-- Doug Wilson