strong like ball

[Wilson Gray]

My grandmother used both "greedy-gut" and "glutton" with wild abandon.
However, I don't recall that she ever said just plain "gut(s)." She
used "insides" for chickens or named the individual parts thereof, when
asked. Since we had our own chickens, I saw my grandfather kill a
chicken by literally wringing its neck. He picked up the chicken by its
head, made a particular movement with his wrist, and the chicken's head
remained in his hand and its body fell to the ground, where it ran
around like a chicken with its head cut or, rather, torn off.

So, I've seen a literal slap on the wrist, a neck literally wrung, and
a chicken literally running around with its head torn off.

I've just heard a character on CSI: NY say for[beid] for "forbade." O,
tempora! O, mores!

-Wilson

On Mar 2, 2005, at 10:09 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: strong like ball
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> My grandmother knew "greedy-gut" too, but I only recall her saying it
> once or twice.  "Guts," however, in the plural and with no mitigating
> modifiers, was not in her active vocabulary.  Her synonyms were
> "nerve" and, where physiology was concerned, "intestines" for people
> and "innards" for poultry.  I don't recall my grandfather saying
> "guts," either, and I know my mother does not.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: strong like ball
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> As is usual with me, I can't provide a cite, but my grandparents, born
> in the 1870's, used the term "greedy-gut" as a synonym for "glutton" in
> the figurative sense.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
> On Mar 2, 2005, at 9:26 PM, James C Stalker wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: James C Stalker
>> Subject: Re: strong like ball
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> 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" wrote:
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>>> 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
>>
>
>
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