the world

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 29, 2004, at 12:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: the world
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> 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

Jonathan, four hours of church on Sunday is *far* more than enough to
make a person Bible-conscious. And that's not even counting the
Thursday-night youth meetings and Tuesday-night choir-practice.

-Wilson

>
> 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
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!
>