No subject

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hi, Larry.  Cf. "My new shoes pinch," perh. semiconsciously interpreted as they "hurt." In a similar context, "The heel pinches."  Undoubtedly (I mean, "undoubtably," of course) some people may think that means my heel rather than the heel of the shoe.  So "pinch" comes to mean "hurt as though being pinched."

Anyway, my dentist also says, "This may sting a little."

JL

urdang <urdang at SBCGLOBAL.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: urdang
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I shall probably be chided for redundancy, but I have=20
seen no comment on the trend over the past decade or so among medical =
personnel (phlebotomists, nurses, dentists, etc.) in the northeast to =
warn a patient of the imminent insertion of a hypodermic needle in the =
arm, gums, or=20
elsewhere with the words, "This may pinch a little."=20
Of course it isn't going to pinch, which means 'grip or seize between =
two fingers, jaws of a pair of pliers,' 'cause pain using a constricting =
force,' and the like: the proper word is prick, but that is avoided =
because it is the slang word for 'penis.' A more accurate euphemism =
might be stick, but I=20
have never heard that.
Perhaps observers in other parts of the US have encountered other =
euphemisms.
I haven't checked every dictionary, but those newer=20
ones I looked in do not cover this sense.
L. Urdang
Old Lyme, CT


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Mail
 Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour