the world

[Jonathan Lighter]

I'd think, then, that the idiom must first have been disseminated by very bible-conscious GIs.

As usual, there's no way to find this out.

But it sounds far-fetched to me, irregoddamnless.


JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: the world
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sep 29, 2004, at 9:36 AM, David Bowie wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: David Bowie
> Subject: Re: the world
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> From: "Mullins, Bill"
>
> : Discussion of "the world" have centered on it being "not in the army"
> : or "not stationed away from home".
>
> : From Wall Street Journal, 4/29/91, article Darby, an advice
> : columnist in the Texas Prison system newspapers.
> : "The current Darby wrote for newspapers "in the world," as inmates
> : describe what's beyond the red-brick prison walls, so submitting
> stories
> : to the Echo came naturally.
>
> Among adherents of several (generally conservative, in my observation)
> religions, the phrase "the world" is often used to mean something like
> "those who aren't part of our particular belief system", with a
> connotation
> of "those sinners over there".
>
> Presumably that comes from the use of the phrasing in the KJV, such as
> "He
> was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
> him not"
> in Jn 1:10 and "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:
> but
> because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
> world,
> therefore the world hateth you" in Jn 15:19.
>
> Since there's a possible KJV source for this use, might "the world"
> meaning
> "in a different situation" have spread from religious use into
> military and
> prison uses? I don't know if it'd be possible to document either way,
> though.
>
> David Bowie http://pmpkn.net/lx
> Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
> house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
> chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>

Irregardless, it certainly seems to me to be a viable explanation,
considering the broad influence that the KJV has had on black speech.

-Wilson Gray


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