strong like ball

[James C Stalker]

Just because I have my Farmer and Henley at hand, would you consder the
following to be figurative/metaphorical?

To fret one's guts:...to worry
To have plenty of guts, but no bowels:  To be unfeeling, hard, merciless.

Farmer and Henley: "gut"

Jim Stalker

Jonathan Lighter writes:

> And anyone who can supply 19th C. exx. of "guts" in a figurative sense should please do so.
> In the days before search engines and databases, I couldn't find much.
>
> JL
>
> "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Baker, John"
> Subject: Re: strong like ball
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yes, "guts" used to be considered coarse. Here's an illustrative quotation from Richard Grant White, A Desultory Denunciation of English Dictionaries, in The Galaxy (1869), via Cornell University Making of America:
>
> <>
>
> Here's an 11/22/1928 use of "intestinal fortitude" from the online Harvard Crimson (Merriam-Webster has c. 1937), which also illustrates the point:
>
> <>
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Gordon, Matthew J.
> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:38 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: strong like ball
>
>
> I heard a new-to-me phrase on the radio: "testicular fortitude" which I took to be a form of "intestinal fortitude" gone south. The context was a local sports program discussing a particular coach. As expected, Google show 11k hits for it (cf. 63k for "intestinal fortitude").
>
> While I'm at it, I'd always thought of "intestinal fortitude" as a humorously formal alternative to "guts." Does the evidence suggest it arose as a deliberately funny coinage? I see OED has a 1945 citation from Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy.
>
> Also, was "guts" seen as vulgar or coarse at some time? Today it seems mostly just informal.
>
> -Matt Gordon
>
>
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James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University