A new use of "duh?"

[Wilson Gray]

Actually, I haven't heard it in years, but, as I recall, it had the same
meaning as now, something like, "What you say is so obvious that it was a
waste of breath for you to state it."

"Hey, the Academy Awards were on last night!"

"No shit (Sherlock)."

FWIW, it seems to me that when you say, "No shit?!" and mean it, you can't
add "Sherlock" to it. When you're being sarcastic, either way works.

Finally, as  soon as I had clicked on "Send," I realized that I had crossed
"no shit" with "you don't know shit from Shinola" to get the non-occurring
"No shit, Shinola."

If you're too young to remember, "Shinola" was the name of a once-popular
brand of shoe polish. See below:

 The Difference Between Shit and Shinola: Clearly Defined, Once and For All
SHINOLA SHIT  Shoe polish. Bodily waste.  No longer manufactured. Manufactured
by every animal on earth at least once a day.  Comes in a can. Doesn't come
in a can but you can put it there.  Pleasant, fruity odor Unpleasant,
poop-like odor  People don't care if you have Shinola on your shoes. Most
people admire shiny shoes. People are offended and make funny faces when you
have shit on your shoes.  Contributed to the end of the Cold War Helped
spread the Black Plague  Repels aliens. Repels aliens.  If you hold a piece
of Shinola in your hand and turn around four times chanting, "I do believe
in fairies! I do believe in fairies!" you will be transported to a magical
paradise where all the boys look like Weezer and cream cheese has no
calories. If you hold a piece of shit in your hand and turn around four
times chanting, "I do believe in fairies! I do believe in fairies!" your
hand will get dirty.  Emily Dickinson wrote poems glorifying Shinola. Jonathan
Swift wrote poems glorifying shit.
------------------------------

-Wilson

On 3/6/06, Jeff Prucher <jprucher at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jeff Prucher <jprucher at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A new use of "duh?"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --- Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: A new use of "duh?"
> >
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > No shit? "Well, no shit your product isn't selling" is grammatical for
> you
> > in an environment devoid of context? Different strokes, I guess. In its
> > original site, which I'm not interested in going to the effort to track
> > down, again, the environment was something like:
> >
> > "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? Well, no duh your product isn't selling
> like
> > hotcakes."
> >
> > Try this one, also found in the wild, with a little more context, from
> > XGenStudios Forums:
> >
> > "Well, no duh you're gonna party like it's your birthday when it is your
> > birthday."
> >
> > I have a hard time getting "no shit" to fit here, too.
>
> Funny, I have harder time getting "no wonder" to fit here than the other
> one.
>
> > Of course, if we all had the same internal grammar, today's English
> might b=
> > e
> > be a lot more like Chaucer's.
> >
> > And I don't have a problem with "Well _no wonder_ your product isn't
> sellin=
> > g
> > [you idiot -- your product sucks]."
>
> Seeing it written out, I don't really have a problem with it, but it
> probably
> wouldn't have occured to me a possible gloss.
>
> > The passage of time probably explains everything. No shit (Sherlock) /
> no
> > shit (Shinola) dates to the late '40's - early '50's in speech. That it
> > should have precisely the same meaning a half-century later is not to be
> > expected.
>
> True 'nuff.  Did "no shit (Sherlock)" mean something other than "of
> course"
> back in the day?
>
> Jeff Prucher
>
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